Actor Neil Stuke, whose mother Joyce lives in Deal, is supporting the Save Our Linwood campaign and has appealed to the community to "stand up and fight" to keep the youth club open.

He has condemned the county council for even considering to close the centre in Mill Road, where he used to box as a young lad.

"Everyone in the Deal area should be energised about this. I am 100% behind the campaign and people should be totally up in arms about this decision.

"The county council should be making Linwood even better than it is and spending more resources on it, not less.

"Where are the young people going to go without the youth centre? There isn’t much to do in Deal for the them."

Mr Stuke, 45, was brought up in the town and his parents used to run The Coffee Inn, Victoria Road, Deal.

The actor now lives in London and often bring his family - he has two children aged two and seven - on holidays to Kingsdown. He is about to start series two of BBC’s Silk for 2012.

He intends to write "strong letter" to the county council chairman Cllr Paul Carter protesting about the threat to Linwood and is appealing to Mercury readers to sign the petition.

* For full story and an update on the Save Our Linwood campaign see the East Kent Mercury, Thursday, September 8.