The Horsell's Mouth Politics, pedantry and personal interests

The Ypod, part of Cllr Well's "poor" youth service provision

I don’t think there’s anyone who’s going to argue that ensuring good youth provision across Woking isn’t important. It is clearly in everyone’s interest that outside of schools hours there should be enough capacity to cater for any young people who want to become involved in structured activities.

But the executive took a very dim view of Cllr Olly Wells’s motion last night, which seemed to be about a different borough to the one I live in and as Cllr Beryl Hunwicks said, employed a scattergun approach to addressing the issues surrounding youth provision. His first sentence demonstrated again his mastery of the misplaced assumption:

“[The] poor level of youth service provision in the borough”

When asked to justify this sweeping statement, Cllr Wells told the executive he “was not aware that he was here to be cross-examined on the felicity of my opinions“, indicating that these statements, which he wants to form the basis of council policy, were clearly just that. He went on to note:

“The increasing lack of anti-social behaviour seen in our communities”

This flies in the face of the evidence gathered by our neighbourhood policing teams, who report that they are very pleased with the decline in instances of anti-social behaviour. This has been achieved by their integration into communities and engagement with young people at risk of offending. There will, obviously, always be incidents but let’s not confuse that with a rise in incidents. The third assumption we had in the motion was:

“The lack of structured activities for young people in the evening outside of uniformed services and church groups”

What a kick in the teeth for people who run groups after school for young people. At Horsell Village Hall, we have the Karen Clarke Theatre Company, which provides activity for many girls throughout the week. As portfolio holder Cllr David Bittleston pointed out, there are more than 100 groups from sporting to social for young people to get involved with if they so wish. Either Cllr Wells hasn’t done even the faintest bit of research on this – or he’s chosen to ignore the overwhelming evidence. Which is surprising given that he seems eager in other circumstances to take credit for one such organisation in his ward, the Knaphill Youth Cafe.

I can understand his wish to see youth provision improved – particularly for those who are in the “hard to reach” category. But his mistake is to believe that recreational youth provision within clubs etc is the same thing as specialised outreach work to engage with young people who are vulnerable or likely to make poor life choices unless engaged by the youth system. They are completely different things – I agree with him that the latter requires proper discussion and investment - whereas like the executive, I take exception to his comments on the former.

Interestingly, Cllr Wells’s suggested solution is a very similar one to his idea over public transport - he wants Woking and Surrey County Council to run the youth service jointly. Never mind the fact that the council tax collected to run the youth service goes to the county council – we in Woking should have to pick up the bill as well!

Typical Liberal Democrat policy - a thin motion funded by thin air.