The youth of the Borough have been telling Councillors and officials exactly what they want from the Council and its services.  As a result, The Youth Charter has been drawn up by the council’s youth service using the feedback from the What do We Want? conference last month, which asked young people what they expect from council services.

Cllr Ruth Cadbury, executive member for Children and Lifelong Learning, said “Frankly, a lot of people here have not been young for some time, so what we think young people want may not necessarily fit in with what they actually need. Asking young people themselves what they actually want will make sure that we work towards meeting their actual needs."

As a result of the feedback from the conference, the youth service is setting up action groups of young people to work towards addressing the issues that were raised. Young people are being asked to put their names forward to join these action groups that will be organised according to the themes raised at the conference including schools, a safer environment, public space development, libraries, information and advice and housing. 

Cllr Cadbury continued “A lot of these areas of concern are shared with the rest of our residents, which shows young people need to be considered in wider policy-making areas, as well as traditional ‘youth issues’. Its not enough for us to just say ‘no, that’s too expensive’ because that doesn’t encourage young people to get involved. By working directly with the young people, listening to their ideas, and clearly explaining our own position we can build a constructive dialogue which we can all benefit from.”