Kent Youth County Council and Thanet Youth Council members will talk about their role and the local issues in Thanet that matter to them. Their presentation will focus on the sports and leisure facilities available in Thanet for young people as well as the accessibility of bus and train services. Officers from Kent County Council and Thanet District Council have been invited and will be available to answer questions.
Minutes:
Thanet KYCC members, Amy Wright, Chelsea Monks and Alice Cope introduced themselves and began by describing the role and work of KYCC.
KYCC is a non-party political organisation that focuses on the issues of young people. Any young person aged between 11 and 18 years, living within KCC boundaries may vote and stand for election. There are 48 seats available, four from each of the 12 local district or borough councils within the KCC area. Community seats for young people not in education or with disabilities have been introduced this year. Candidates may stand for election in either the district or borough where they live or go to school, college or work and are elected for one year with the option of continuing for a second year to support newly elected members.
KYCC members work closely with officers and elected members of KCC, informing them of young people’s issues and concerns. They also attend other local meetings to get heard about issues that matter to them. Some attend Youth Advisory Group meetings, local youth forums and regularly meet with the Kent Youth Service Senior Management Team to support and advise them in order to improve services for young people.
Each local authority is able to send representatives to the UK Youth Parliament – KYCC has elected seven of its members to the UKYP to take Kent issues to the national sitting.
Some KYCC members have been involved in deciding how the Youth Opportunity Fund distributes money to different groups of young people to make a difference to their lives. For example, the Youth Capital Fund has given money to buy mini buses, skate parks like the one in Ashford and youth centres across the county. Over £1.2m has been allocated.
KYCC is also involved in an Exchange programme called 4Way Youth Exchange with Estonia, Finland and Germany which enables members to visit and share experiences with young people from these countries and find out more about their youth participation. Other activities include team building and developing skills for the future.
Nigel Cross, Youth Developer from Thanet District Council then spoke about the work of Thanet Youth Council members. (Unfortunately the TYC member planned to speak had been taken unwell.) Thanet Youth Council has been established for 11 years, is independently funded by the Lottery and, like KYCC is non political. To be a member you have to be aged 11-20 years and live in Thanet. The main forum comprises 25 people with a Chair and Vice Chair and its aim is to promote the benefit of young people in Thanet by enabling them to develop citizenship skills and to be represented within the democratic and decision-making processes of Thanet. TYC is based at the Quarterdeck Youth Centre in Margate and they have a number of sub groups covering transport, sport, etc and get involved in various consultation events e.g. the Safe Citizen Conference at the Winter Gardens attended by 300 young people. Other activities include team building, public speaking, the ‘Youth Matters’ newsletter and various work on panels, e.g. the Turner Contemporary intergenerational project.
Recently a Youth Mayor has been elected for the first time, 6,500 young people voted and there was high turnout of 52%. (The present Mayor has just started university and was unable to attend the meeting.)
The KYCC and TYC members then spoke about specific concerns and issues affecting young people in Thanet.
· Transport. Young people are reliant on public transport yet buses don’t run late enough to get to and from evening activities, are not regular enough and the main bus routes around Thanet, the No 8 and No 9 don’t cover a wide enough area leaving some young people unable to go anywhere.
· Leisure activities. How are young people supposed to stay healthy? There are not enough activities for young people between 15-19 years and what is available is expensive. They gave examples of local sports centre costs, e.g. junior gym membership is £4 per week, free swimming only lasts until 16 and can cost £4 and skate parks are expensive and quite a distance to travel to in Ashford and Swalecliffe. Why should young people have to pay adult prices when they are still in full time education? They also asked to be consulted more about various projects and be given updates and feedback from the consultation, e.g. what has happened about the options for local swimming pools in Ramsgate, Hartsdown and Marlowe that they were consulted on in 2007? And why did Turner Contemporary not consult young people about the best time to arrange meetings rather than set them to start at 4.00 pm that made it awkward or impossible for young people to attend?
· Local Democracy Week. KYCC would like to be much better informed about activities during this week and how they can get involved and raise awareness to target young people better.
· Freedom Bus Pass – why cannot the age be raised to 18?
Chris Metherell, KCC’s Sports Development Manager and Martyn Cassell, TDC’s Sports Development Manager were in the audience to answer questions. Chris Metherell commented that the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was in place to help 16-18 year olds with the costs of transport and leisure facilities. In order to address these questions properly and talk about current and future facilities, both Chris and Martyn offered to attend a future KYCC and TYC meeting and this will be organised shortly.
Q. If there was one thing that would improve the life and enjoyment of young people in Thanet, what would this be?
A. Reduce the cost of everything as currently it is impossible to afford many activities. Perhaps a 10% discount card off leisure activities and transport. Currently part-time work is difficult to obtain and the EMA is means test so not everyone is eligible.
Mr Hayton thanked the young people for their informative and enthusiastic approach and commented how impressed he had been with the professional way they had delivered their presentation. He hoped that many of their issues and suggestions would be taken forward by the officers present for consideration.