Efforts are being stepped up ahead of a crucial council meeting this week to ensure that more local youngsters benefit from South Gloucestershire Council’s youth funding.
It comes after the latest figures for 2011/12 show that of the 21,670 young people aged 13-19 in South Gloucestershire, just 4,431 regularly accessed a council youth centre.
At a meeting of the authority’s Children & Young People on Wednesday 25th July, councillors are being asked to make a decision on proposed changes to its children, young people and family services, including a proposal to allocate part of its youth budget on a per young person basis to ensure that more young people can benefit from access to positive activities.
At the moment, the council allocates funding directly to youth centres, but these are not evenly spread across the district with many communities, particularly rural areas, lacking one entirely.
And even in communities where there is one, attendance figures show that they are being shunned by 4 out of 5 young people.
This means that thousands of loca lyoung people currently have little or no access to council funded activities.
Conservative councillor for therural Severn ward Matthew Riddle said:
“We have to recognise that 80 per cent of young people are shunning the council youth centres. These same youngsters are instead participating in positive activities often at their own expense because they and their families are denied access to the authority’s youth budget – such a system can no longer be considered fair in the tough financial climate we are in. The council’s youth budget isn’t made up of its own money, it’s made up of tax payers’ money and so we have to find a way of maximising the value that these local taxpayers feel they get for their hard-earned cash. What weneed is an end to the one-size-fits-all system for the few that we have now and instead move to a more flexible system for the many that can better respond to the rising expectations of local families.”
Conservative councillors Steve Reade and Ben Stokes, who represent the rural villages of Boyd Valley, added:
“We desperately need a fair system where 5 out of 5 young people can access council funding for positive activities, but sadly there will be powerful vested interests who will fight to retain the unfair status quo which sees only 1 in 5 young people benefit. The committee needs to ensure that many more young people can benefit from the council’s youth funding, particularly in rural areas like Boyd Valley.”