A centre which provides an alternative to school for youngsters has ceased trading.

The boss of Active8, James Fortune, has sent out redundancy notices to eight staff and has told them he plans to place the company into voluntary liquidation.

But workers say they are continuing to suffer hardship because they cannot claim benefits or redundancy money from the Government until they have received P45s and completed paperwork naming the administrator.

Meanwhile, schools have had to resume responsibility for up to 40 teenagers who had been placed with Active8, many as an alternative to being excluded.

Among those who had been educated by Easton- based Actvie8 was Troy Atkinson, the Hartcliffe teenager who died after being run over by a hit-and-run driver in the city centre in April.

Organisations who are owed money by Active8, such as its payroll company and those responsible for premises it used for its classes, look set to have to wait for a liquidator to be appointed.

Mr Fortune, 25, who set up Active8 with three other directors in 2007, said it had been a difficult decision to cease trading.

He said: "The company really regrets the situation. We know it has been difficult for the staff concerned. We are a small outfit and we don't have the resources to move quickly.

"Our priority has been concentrated on making sure we can raise enough money to pay a liquidator. We think we can do that in the next week or so by selling some of the company's assets."

One of the centre's youth inclusion workers Jayne John-Baptiste, 49, of St Werburgh's, said administrators should have been appointed weeks ago.

"I have had no money since the middle of March," she said. "I had to apply for a crisis loan and got £70 for 11 days. How do they think I am going to survive?"

Mr Fortune blamed the economic downturn for the failure of Active8.

The firm hit problems early this year after Bristol City Council withdrew children from its service because of concerns over safe recruitment and child protection.