Ambition AXA Awards

This is a cut and paste job - but no apologies for that.  Something that is very important:

"We all dream of being the best at something; here is a helping hand"

‘Do you know of any young achievers aged 11-18 who care deeply about their community and dream of making a significant difference to the people around them? CSV is helping to judge the Ambition AXA Awards. They have been created to recognise outstanding young people involved in The Arts, Community, Enterprise, Science and Sport.  The winner in each category receives a bespoke mentoring prize to progress their ambitions to make a difference. It might be someone who has launched a campaign to slow down traffic and protect children, or someone who has dedicated themselves to fundraising for their local hospice, or someone who has tackled bullying at their school or worked to involve disabled children in their activities. Please encourage young people you know to apply by visiting www.ambitionaxaawards.com or www.facebook.com/ambitionaxaawards.’

Whittlesey Youth Club Sleepover

I had the pleasure of helping at the sleepover at the Youth Centre last night.  I have to say I had a fantastic time.

The event was held as part of a plan to raise funding for the Youth Centre, to try and make sure our youth provision is maintained in the light of the cuts that are being made, something the Whittlesey Action for Youth group is also trying to do (and which also met last night).

The Young People were excellent, they had great fun, enjoyed each others company and were an absolute credit to themselves.  It was a pleasure to spend time with such good kids.  And it is a credit to them that they have reacted to the funding issues in the Youth Centre in such a positive way.  There are a number of adults who could learn from their attitude.

I also take my hat off to those who helped offered their own time helping out time last night.  I did a shift until midnight, but people stayed much, much longer than I did. Lovely, dedicated people who want the best for the Young People in Whittlesey.

So, the question is, should the "soak the youth worker" I have photos be published?  I suppose if I do photos of sleeping bag racing might emerge!

Youth Services Cuts

I have been contacted by a number of residents about the proposed cuts to Youth Services budget in Whittlesey and the impact this will have on the open access clubs in the Town.

These proposed changes come about directly as a result of the cuts the County Council face, which are forecast to be between 25% and 40%.  Cuts like that, especially in a County like Cambridgeshire which is recognised for managing money well and for being efficient, cannot be made without impacting on some services.   When the Coalition Government came to power, they inherited a record budget deficit - and these changes can be directly attributed to the measures needed to bring our country back onto an even financial keel.

Wiithin Children's Services, which is my portfolio as a Cabinet Member at the County Council, we have had to go back to basics and recognise that our primary role is to make sure we protect and support vulnerable children and families and to do preventative work which reduces more expensive interventions.   Unfortunately, Open Access Youth Clubs don't fit in to that category.  That is not to say they don't have a function and they aren't useful, just that with the funding situation we face, they are not affordable.   This is not something anyone wants to do, it is forced on us by circumstances.

I have been approached by a number of people asking what can be done to keep the Youth Centre in Whittlesey open.  As a result I have asked for some support to investigate the possibility of creating a Trust of some sort that can be used as a basis for fund raising and making bids to try and replace the money that is being lost and minimise the impact of those cuts on Whittlesey - I don't know the detail of this, it is very much a work in progress, but if this is something you are interested in, please get in touch.

Please also get in touch if you have any other ideas and thoughts.

Disagreeing with Conservatives over Mosquito Devices

I must not make a habit of disagreeing with the Conservatives.  Seriously I do agree with 95% of what my party says, but every now and again I see or read something that I just cannot agree with.

Nick Herbert's failure to deal with mosquito devices is one of them.  The BBC report the story here.

Mosquito devices are evil electronic gadgets that sit on the outside of buildings and emit a high pitch noise that only young people can hear, they are there to deter young people for hanging around in certain places.  They are a poor substitute for good community policing.

One the surface I can see why some people approve.  However, if you believe that punishing the innocent is wrong - then you simply cannot support these vile objects.  The vast  majority of our young people are a real asset to us - those innocent, well-behaved, well-intentioned young people are affected by mosquito devices as much as the small minority of young people who don't know how to behave.  It suggests that just 'hanging around' is anti-social behaviour in itself.  It is not.

What about those people that can't express their view?  How about a mother stood near one of these devices with a baby in a pushchair?  That baby could hear the device, could be disturbed by it and could not express the reason for their distress.

I remember having a conversation at a meeting with a representative of Cambs Police.  At the time they had supported the installation of one of these things at Queensgate shopping centre.   He justified it by saying that it was OK because it was only turned on for 20 minutes at a time.  So I asked him if it was OK for me to pester older people as long as it was only for 20 minutes at a time.  I didn't get an answer.

I really hope Nick Herbert will rethink his views on this.

Hats off to the Cambs Times

I have had a tough week this week, mostly dealing with budget issues at Shire Hall, some details of our budget have been published this week - and you can see what I mean about tough.  More of that in a few days.

But one of the other things I did this week was to tell members of the Children's Trust Executive (a group of Director level employees in the public sector in Cambridgeshire with an interest in Children's issues) that I was a big fan of the Cambs Times "Kids are Alright" Campaign", something that has played a great role in promoting the positive side of young people in the Fenland area.   My line was basically that we should be looking to promote this sort of campaign everywhere.

Anyway, great timing, the campaign has won an award at the EDF Energy East of England Media Awards.  I have to say I am delighted for everyone at the Cambs Times.   It is great to see them succeeding and being recognised for doing something that the media as a whole should be doing more of; standing up and shouting about how great the vast majority of our young people are.

Live Music at the Youth Club

I went to Scaldgate Youth Club last night, where they had a live music night on.

This is something great for our young people - both musicians and audience.  The place was packed with people having a great time.  So good to see.

Not JUNK at all

The marvellous traffic around Cambridge made me a little late tonight for a preview of a film made by JUNK Theatre Group called "WASTED" which was shown at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.  But I was lucky enough to see most of it and was hugely impressed.

The film is to be shown in Cambridgeshire schools as part of the PSHE curriculum, telling the story of a young girl and her friends in the events leading up to a road accident which results in one of the friends being critically injured.

JUNK Theatre group is an organisation for Cambridgeshire Young People and operates out of The Junction in Cambridge (which is also a great music venue btw).   Judging by the standard of acting in this film, they have a great deal to be proud of.  I am told there is a possibility of it being put online some time.  If it is I will link to it.

First Aid Training for our Young People

I popped in to the Scaldgate Youth Centre today to chat to Rebecca Hoy, our (relatively) new Youth Worker to talk about where we were in Whittlesey. Actually things have improved lately, especially as far as Friday night provision goes with sessions now being held both at the Manor and at the Youth Centre.

I also had a nose at some First Aid training that was going on with some of our Young People. It was quite refreshing to see 22 young people taking part. I managed to have a chat with a few of them, and they seemed to be having a good time as well as learning something.

Thanks to all who made this happen.

Neighbourhood Forum

I went to the Whittlesey Neighbourhood Forum last night.

They are always interesting and often challenging. But they do bring issues to light and it is always there to gauge opinion and listen to what is said.

It was nice to see that one of the priorities for the police was to focus on the parking problems outside of our schools. (I know schools are closed - but the priorities are set for three months).

The stars of the show last night were four youngsters who spoke about the need to expand our skate park - because of its success. Whether this can happen or not I don't know - but it is worth examining, but hats off to those young people. It must be really daunting to talk to an audience that, before they spoke to us,they had heard get quite animated and loud at times (no problem with a bit of passion), but despite this they were articulated and enthusiastic, if a but nervous.

We do have great Young People in Whittlesey.