Time is running out for a young people’s charity hoping to turn one of Bradford’s oldest former cinemas into a new learning centre for ‘difficult’ teenagers.

The Joshua Project has until this Friday to raise another £57,820 so it can sign the lease on The Plaza in Cross Lane, Great Horton.

It plans to transform the old red-brick and stone building into The Impact Centre now it has outgrown its base at nearby St John’s Church.

After six months of consultations with architects and planners, the charity has a deadline of Friday to sign on the dotted line.

The money it needs would pay for the first two years’ rent, the first year’s bills and all the building work – so far it has £17,180 guaranteed.

Plans are to turn the centre inside into a high street with shop-fronts leading to learning spaces behind. The ‘street’ would follow the cinema’s main aisle slope down to the stage, which would be kept as an auditorium.

But without financial support the classrooms, a mixing desk and a cafe area might not go ahead.

The project’s founder, Rich Jones, said the charity was desperately e-mailing and calling contacts in a last-ditch appeal to get the money in – hoping for support from businesses, organisations and individuals making one-off pledges.

“We need the money in the bank or pledges made. We can’t sign the lease without it,” said Mr Jones.

“We are at crunch point.”

If the centre goes ahead, schools would be able to hire space there to work with disruptive and disturbed young people before they got into a situation where they are expelled.

“It will allow time and space for experts to work with the teenagers and get them to see the possibilities a good education can bring them. We can give schools the extra support they need,” said Mr Jones.

The charity, which began in Bradford in 2007, has already been working with an average of 200 young people a week who have been coming to after-school activities at St John’s.

“Unless we get this money we will be at a standstill and will have to turn young people away. We don’t want to do that. The project has massive potential to make a difference to many more young lives in this city.”

If you want to make a donation or pledge support go to joshuaproject.co.uk or call 0845 8052194.