Harborough Youth Conference 2008
So here we are at The Three Swans Hotel in Market Harborough for Harborough's youth conference. only the n00b driver sat in front of us for a while hindered an otherwise pleasant journey here.
So why were we brought to this swanky hotel (well swanky by youth council standards) on this cold December night? The idea is to give the young people of Harborough district a chance to talk to their local councillors about issues concerning young people in the area. It's got to be said that they seem to have done well in the planning as there appears to be a great turn out by the young people of Harborough.
Opening Speech
Hello everybody, thank you very much. I'm here to introduce myself as Paul Bremner. We're here to hear your views, we're here to listen to you, to talk about what you see on the boards around the hall. We do have challenges at the moment in the District Council and challenges nationwide - for example, what's been termed the 'Credit Crunch' - but I always find that young people have energy, ideas, motivations, and opportunities that adults can't reach. There are also organisations like the Harborough Youth Forum who I'd like to give a public thanks to for organising and inputting into this event with the assistance of the County Council and District Council officials. Remember to make the best of this opportunity - grill the councillors, grill me, and enjoy it!
Cllr. Paul Bremner
Children and Young Peoples Champion,
Harborough District Council
Harborough Councillors
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Political Networking
10 groups of young people, 9 councillors. Each Councillor gets 5 minutes with each group of young people, where the young people have the chance to raise any issues they have in their area. The catch? The young people have a sheet on which to rate different aspects of the councillors on a scale from 1-10.
Having a wander round, I'm not sure if everyone is 100% sure what they are meant to be doing. Some of the young people seem not to be having much of a say and some of the councillors seem to have their own agenda.
I am pleased to see that some of the councillors are dealing well with talking to the young people. I expected to hear a few condescending statements, and seeing many bored young people, but I think that's probably just my own misconceptions about councillors.
Having a second wander round I finally hear some of the issues being brought up by the young people, with transport and facilities being the main ones. Now everyone seems to be in the swing of things with the councillors listening earnestly to the young people, and the young people now seem happy putting over their views and opinions.
Area Discussions
After some good nosh, came the time when the young people got the chance to talk to the councillors specific to their areas for a longer period of time.
The young people and councillors alike are putting forward the issues they felt were most prominant when doing the political networking, and seeing if there's anything in particular that arises in their area.
Our man on the scene, Josh, went around listening in to the groups, to see how productive this session is. He noticed that one of the groups was being dominated by a young person whose contributions seemed to be deliberately irrelevant, yet he wasn't letting anyone else get a word in edgeways. Maybe this group could have been facilitated better.
Rather than contributing to the discussion, the councillors seemed happy to listen to the young people and let them carry the ideas forward.
Feedback highlighted three points: What's good about the area, what's bad about the area, and from this, three areas where they would like to see improvement. The feedback was well presented, and made it clear the good and bad points of each area. Hopefully the councillors are making note of the areas for improvement as surely that's the whole reason for them being here.
Some key issues raised:
- Buses running later weekdays, and buses on Sundays. Cheaper fares.
- Having to travel too far to get to leisure facilities/cost of leisure facilities (councillor did inform us that swimming will soon be free nationally for under 16's)
- The lack of a youth club in Lutterworth (there is one, just not very active/well advertised)
- An under 18's night at Enigma
- A local cinema (plans are underway)
Evaluation with Councillors
This time was used to see how the councillors could help the young people, and how the young people can help the councillors to help them. The evaluation ended on high with a councillor saying how he would try to help the young people in getting more facilities, and stressed that for local businesses to help get facilities for young people, the young people would have to support them. This was met with a round of applause.
Lastly the scores from the political networking were announced. The councillor with the highest score was Geraldine Robinson. So if you're in the Harborough area, and need some help, you now know which is the best councillor to turn to.
Our Thoughts
Overall, I think the evening went well. There was a good turnout, by both the young people and the councillors. Any glitches in the organisation of the event were quickly smoothed out and the event ran well.
We got some very positive feedback from the young people who attended, all seemed to enjoy the night, though some feel very dubious about whether or not their views will actually be taken seriously and their points taken forward by the councillors. One councillor, Graham Spenlove, made a point of coming over to see us in the Jitty's corner and taking down the address of the site, and from what we could see during the discussions seemed to develop a genuine rapport with the group of young people from his ward. We hope he gained as much from the evening as the young people around his table!
Credit must go the the members of the Harborough Youth Forum for helping to put the night together, and especially to the forum's vice chair, Tim, for running the open floor debate like a professional and making sure everybody had a chance to state and develop their ideas.
Harborough Conference Photos
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