My views on youth issues in Thetford

A debate recently took place through Facebook on provision for young people in Thetford, here's my contribution; My 'two penneth' for what it is worth.... we have always struggled in Thetford to provide a satisfactory level of facilities and activities for young people. We are a small market town, but with a very large youth population, we have entrenched deprivation (the child poverty rate for my Council Ward is 29%) and low car ownership - this means it is difficult for many parents to afford to access paid activities or facilities on a regular basis or to transport their children to activities that are taking place or support their membership of organised clubs etc. (watching the commitment my sister has to put into supporting my nephew who is a member of a local football team is frankly inspiring). A limited public transport network compounds the problems - ask any young person how easy it is to get to and from Bury cinema for example on the bus (let alone the cost of the cinema, drinks etc. Frankly if I did not drive, myself and my circle of friends - who don't drive, would have a much reduced social life and we're all in our mid 20's!). As a town, we have also been historically poorly served by 'the councils'. For example, Norfolk County Council who were the primary provider of youth activities, for many years provided one of the least amounts of money for youth services in the country, even before you considered the additional costs incurred when spreading that service over a large rural county. Norfolk CC "deleted" their youth service last year and made all of their youth workers redundant, practically wiped out the Connexions support service, closed the Thetford Pupil Referral Unit and much else - including cuts to teenage pregnancy support services. Added to national Government cuts to things like the Educational Support Allowance (EMA), rises in tuition fees, scrapping the future jobs fund etc - you can see why young people are getting a bad deal at the moment (nearly 1 million youth unemployed - not including the 16 & 17 year olds of course not in education or employment as they don't register on the statistics). More locally of course, Breckland Council has historically not provided many activities for young people, or indeed many cultural or sports related services, although they have increased somewhat over the last few years, the service is still somewhat inadequate and Breckland is a large rural district, and many activities take place in the villages, as opposed to towns like Thetford (although I am very grateful for the £3,000 they recently granted to the Football Coaching project delivered by the TCA). I have long believed that Thetford Town Council needs to get a grip of the situation and support young people. They are the future of our town (a much overused cliche, but it is true). Last year I asked the Town Council to create a yearly budget of £40,000 to support children and young people - even that was insignificant, but it was an important start - eventually they granted £10,000 per year, but I have hopes that this will rise. The Town Council spends £750,000 per year in total, yet contributed just £5,000 to 'youth projects' (although I except that young people do benefit from generic services such as public toilets, Christmas lights switch on for example) but the point remains, for a town where over 25% of the population is under 16 years of age, the towns budget did not reflect this and still does not reflect this. So what can we do about it? If you're a parent reading this, or a young person, get yourself to the public question time at a Town Council meeting (last Tuesday of every month, always starting at 7pm, always with a 15 minute public question time at the start) ask YOUR representatives what they are doing to support young people (I am constantly surprised at how 'anti youth' some councillors are), make sure you vote at local elections (as the point has been made earlier by Bob, some very good pro-young people candidates do not get elected, because older members of our community and far more active when it comes to elections. And also, get out there and volunteer. All the previous comments about volunteering are very valid, but I can entirely understand peoples concerns about volunteering. Working with young people can be daunting, particularly given many of the young people can be challenging (wherever you live) - and there is a distinct difference with volunteering in Thetford and some nearby leafy village. There is an important role for 'councils' and other organisations to support parents and well meaning members of the community with volunteering, to facilitate and enable that commitment to flourish, by providing training etc. I work on a self-employed basis for a local charity - Thetford Community Association - that runs football coaching sessions for young people aged 10-14 years at the Ballpark on St Martins Way, last week we interviewed two people (one from the Abbey Estate, and one from Mundford) who are going to be volunteering at our sessions, two guys with limited experience in youth work / football coaching, but a very firm commitment to wanting to help their community, which is highly commendable. There are many examples of good projects, as had been demonstrated in this post, and if people wanted to they could quite easily fit in and give a small amount of time that would make a big difference.

Thetford Youth Club - Excellent press coverage!

Sticking to an election pledge

When I stood for the Town Council by-election in July 2008, I listed three priorities on my main election leaflet. One of which was to campaign for more facilities and activities for children and young people in this town. We have a higher percentage of children under the age of 16 than any other place in Norfolk. 25% of Thetford is under 16, the national average is 17%. Imagine my horror therefore when I read the latest edition of Breckland Voice (the propaganda newspaper produced by Breckland Council, affectionately known as the 'bin-rag' by some, and worse names by others). I digress. Breckland Voice detailed two pages of activities for children taking place across the district, all free! great! Errrm. No. Not a single one taking place in Thetford. (Although, not many in Dereham either to be fair). I contacted Breckland Council and asked why. Because deadlines were missed. OK. What is happening? Activities at the Sports Centre provided by Parkwood? Hold on, Parkwood are a private company, they are charging for all their activities, one was £18 per child per day! Can parents across the Saxon Ward, and Thetford afford that? No. Furthermore, they are a sports centre, activities are sports related. Not all kids like sport. The activities detailed in 'Voice' were a mix, including arts and crafts related. So the bottom line is, it is not like for like. Once again, Thetford is being missed out. Don't children and young people in Thetford deserve something to do over the summer holidays? It would be worth mentioning Norfolk Youth Service at this point, part of Norfolk County Council, whom it would appear are also inadequately serving the needs of young people in this town. I contacted the Bury Free Press and shared my frustrations. They picked up on the story, and initially wanted a photograph of me to accompany the story, I suggested they speak to the parents who had contacted me initially asking about activities for children and hence the above lovely photo of bored children, has ended up on this weeks front page. Providing more activities for children and young people is of paramount important in this town and I will continue to do whatever I can to chip away at the issue. Here is the link to the story; http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/thetford/Nowhere-to-go.5468253.jp UPDATE: From a parent who contacted me about the lack of childrens activities who's child I invited to be in the photo for the newspaper: "I couldn't believe it when I saw it, I went to buy it and noticed they got front page! I was really pleased because people will have to pay attention now :) if it gets the message through then its all worth it because our children are the future an they will determine what happens next; if Thetford is going to be a respectable place with many opportunites or whether it will be known for crime and anti social behaviour !! thanx mate for giving me the opportunity to play a part in what happens to my childs future :) xx