More than 100 young people have protested against cuts which could mean the closure of youth centres across the Bath area.

The teenagers congregated outside the Guildhall with whistles and banners ahead of a council meeting in an attempt to convince politicians to protect funding for youth services.

Tory-controlled Bath and North East Somerset Council is planning to reduce its youth services budget from £1 million to £655,000 from April next year.

The cost-saving proposals focus on pulling the plug on funding for some youth centres, with those in Peasedown St John, Batheaston and Keynsham at risk.

A number of young people spoke during the meeting of the children and young people overview and scrutiny panel on Monday night to explain why the youth service meant so much to them.

April Hill, who attends the Time Out centre in Keynsham, described the service as a "second family" to her and warned that cutting funding would lead to more teenagers on the streets, possibly causing trouble.

Aspiring rapper Hannah Eades, who is a pupil at Hayesfield School and uses the Riverside Youth Centre off London Road to record music, also spoke.

The 15-year-old performed a rap- style speech which said the service had given her opportunities to progress her music career.

Stefan Di Finizio, who represents the Bath area on the national youth parliament, asked council officers whether they had taken the time to look around the youth centres which could be closed.

The 15-year-old Wellsway School pupil said: "How many of you have spent a night at a youth club to see what is going on and what good they are doing?"

Council director of children's services Ashley Ayre thanked the young people for attending the meeting and putting their thoughts across but said he had difficult decisions to make to balance the books.

He said: "This is all to do with relative priorities. I appreciate everything people have said tonight and I hope you understand that these decisions aren't easy.

"I have to make reductions in children's services and I have to do that where I believe it's most appropriate.

"For example I'd prefer to take money out of youth services rather than our children in care service budget."

A formal consultation exercise will be launched on Monday to look at the options for reducing the number of youth centres funded by the council, which is expected to result in a number of redundancies and an invitation to community groups to take over some work. Centres which look most likely to have their funding withdrawn are Keynsham, Batheaston and either Peasedown or Radstock.

Councillor Nathan Hartley (Lib Dem, Peasedown), who helped to arrange the protests, said he was opposed to the closures.

The opposition spokesman on children's services said: "The problem with the current administration is that whenever cuts have to be made, it's always the young and the vulnerable that suffer. The youth service is a valuable asset and we shouldn't be so quick to throw it away.

"I believe any political party, anywhere in the country, has a moral duty to provide activities for young people, and to encourage them to make positive contributions to the community."