Agenda item
Canon Lee School Council
Young people from Canon Lee School Council will tell the meeting what they do and about their issues and ideas for the ward.
Minutes:
Samantha Holmes and Joe Pattison of Canon Lee School Council spoke to the meeting about the needs of young people in the ward and building a more positive attitude towards young people in the ward.
Many problems in the community are particularly associated with young people: litter, anti-social behaviour, and groups of people congregating in public areas. They explained that young people are visible in public spaces because they don’t have anywhere else to go. To remedy this, they suggest that suitable locations in the ward could offer reductions for young people so they have somewhere to go without spending a lot of money, for example, cinemas, bowling halls, etc. Especially in winter, they want to be out with their friends without being outside. They would like to make people aware of the benefits of having young people in the neighbourhood.
Q (Cllr Scott) The ward committee has money to spend on young people, how would you like it spent, especially during the holidays?
A. It could be used to help make young people aware of available activities.
Q. Does the school make their facilities available during the holidays?
A. That would be a good idea.
Q. Are there youth clubs in the area? There used to be youth clubs with good activities in the ward.
A. There is a youth club in Clifton Moor, but most people don’t know about it.
A. (resident) There is also a youth club at Burton Stone Community Centre and at Kingswater.
Q. (Cllr. King) What facilities do you really want? Do you not know about facilities or do you want something new?
A. In the case of the youth clubs, most people don’t know about them. But we would also like somewhere outside, somewhere sheltered where we can spend time with our friends. There is no space specifically allocated to young people.
Q. Could councillors have a forum with young people?
A. (Cllr. Scott) In the past we have had meetings with the entire Canon Lee School Council.
Q. A lot of kids use Water Lane and it leads to a big litter problem. Could you alert other pupils to the problem?
Q. There were problems with litter 50 years ago.
Q. There were fewer cars on the streets years ago, so space was available to young people. Kids now have to go to specific areas – how do you provide facilities for them? How do you provide 2,000 young people with entertainment once a week?
A. We spend a lot of time standing around in car parks, doing nothing.
Q. It is an enormous problem and won’t be resolved easily.
Q. (Cllr. Scott) What aspects of adult’s behaviour do you find interesting?
A. We were out with friends and there were complaints about noise.
Q. (Cllr. Scott) Do you think we fail to understand you?
A. Yes, one individual seemed almost selfish about public space.
Q. Do you find that people think you’re up to no good?
A. Yes, they generalise and think we’re all thugs.
Q. What about the police – what kind of attention do you get from the police?
A. They come up to us and try to move us along.
Q. (PC) How do you react to that, when police come up to you?
A. It has never happened directly to me.
Q. Would it help if you saw police officers more often?
A. I’m not sure that seeing them more often would help.
Q. Is it the problem that you’ve nothing to do or nowhere to go?
A. We would like somewhere to go, we don’t necessarily need activities.
Q. It’s not always about sports. Many young people need an opportunity to sit and talk with friends.
Q. (PCSO) The youth clubs at Kingswater and the Burton Stone Community Centre are based around that.
Q. What is the budget currently being spent on?
A. (Cllr. Scott) The budget has contributed to the Fun Day, activities with Global, the Youth Service, Street Sports. We have a youth fund so that it can respond to the needs of young people throughout the year.