HUNDREDS of young people are to stage a mass protest outside Warrington Town Hall next Monday to raise awareness of proposed cuts in youth services in the borough.
The demonstration has been organised by two students from Priestley College – Tom Jennings, the Warrington South Member of the Youth Parliament and Jenny George, a member of the Warrington South Youth Forum.
More than 200 people have already pledged to attend the protest through social networking website Facebook.
Tom (pictured) said: “The protest is politically neutral and is not to be seen as an attack on the council or individual councillors.
“It is to raise awareness of the colossal concern from young people – given that as a section of society, we have had no consultation – and other members of the public.”
Tom said the Connexions Service was set up by the previous government to give advice and support to young people on education, careers, housing, money, health and relationships.
But because of council cuts, Connexions Warrington had lost £530,000 from its budget.
“This has resulted in 47 per cent of the workers being let go, with many remaining workers reducing their hours in order to prevent more job losses.
“The Connexions service is now only able to provide careers advice and Connexions Warrington, located opposite the Golden Gates, is now closed on a Saturday – when are most young people in town to use Connexions?”
A second round of cuts affecting Connexions Warrington is to take place around March, he added.
Tom pointed out that in 2009, Ofsted found Warrington to be failing vulnerable children and, as a result, the council increased the Children and Young People’s Services budget by £2.3million to improve the service. A year later, Ofsted found 23 of their targets had been met.
“However only a year later, the council proposes to make £1,073,000 savings in Children and Young People’s Services in the period from April 2011 to March 2012 – with a further £1,410,000 savings proposed to be made from April 2012 to March 2015.
“So within the next four years, they wish to cut almost £2.5 million from the Children’s and Young People’s Services budget which is more than they put into the service to get it up to scratch only a year ago!
“I find it extremely concerning that they can choose to make cuts in services that work with so many vulnerable young people who they know they were failing and putting at risk only two years ago.”
Tom said young mum’s groups, alternative education projects, alcohol and drug abuse support groups, support groups for those on the verge of criminal activity, youth groups and youth Forums, and looked after children’s groups could all soon to be at risk of funding cuts and loss of youth workers.
This was because they were not a statutory duty for councils to provide.
“Other councils across the country have apparently already chosen to do this and the young people within their borough’s now have nothing.
“This cannot be allowed to happen in Warrington.”
29 Comments
The protest is open to anyone, young people and adults, who are concerned with what’s written above. Thank you
Are these details available on the Council’s iPads’s?
There is not mention of what time it is being held at 🙂
Sorry I meant ‘NO’ mention oops
I am told it is from 6pm for an hour
Tom, are you and your fellow protesters going to make up any shortfall in funding or are you happy in your refusal to join the real world?
Excellent, concise and insightful comment ‘eagle’.
Jenny George isa newb
The fact of the matter is that warrington was forced into action several years ago because of the dire state of its youth service, now the council are trying to reverse all the work that was put in by the youth workers in setting up so many excellent facilities. Perhaps the shortfall can be partially made up by selling off the 24 Ipads the council saw fit to buy.
“It is to raise awareness of the colossal concern from young people – given that as a section of society, we have had no consultation – and other members of the public.”
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Welcome to the real world Tom!
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You could argue that each and every one of these projects are vital but the reality is we managed quite well without them in the past and it did us no harm. In fact they probably did us all a favour because if a society needs to be “wet nursed” to this level is never going to be robust.
Tom, take no notice of the ‘old gripes’ comments, it is after all their generation not yours who have produced the society we live in today. It is through their apatheticness and subsequent unchallenging acceptance that this particular dictatorial and self-serving form of governance has been allowed to evolve and create the mess we are in today.
Eagle, Eric and Bill your somewhat scathing comments seem to be due to the fact that you have failed to grasp what Tom and his friends are protesting about. The Connexions service provides help with careers and employment advice. The fact that Tom and his friends see this as an essential service shows clearly that they expect and want to work in the future, not be ‘ wet nursed’ as Bill so sarcastically writes. Eagle, your sarcastic criticism re young people not contributing to society is ill thought out, you seem to fail to realise it is their generation who are going to have to pay off the debts caused by previous generations blundering and apathy. It is their generation who are expected to fight and possibly die in the pointless wars caused by others. It is their generation whose labour will ultimately fund your pensions and care packages! For Tom and his friends to realise better than you do, that to be able to meet the challenges the future holds, Careers and employment services are indeed a necessity, indicates that Tom and his friends are more ‘in the real world’ than any of you who criticise are!
However noble the cause, the lesson that money does not grow on trees is always worth learning.
There is no doubt that we are in financial bad times and everybody will no doubt feel the pinch in the near future.
I don’t see ‘scathing’ in any of the comments, but I am beginning to see ‘liberalism’.
I’m obviously biased because I grew up on Gig Lane, Woolston in the 40’s, where a deflated football was prized possesion and an open field was our gathering place. I had a fantastic childhood without candy or government help and later made myself a damn fine living. It can be done without crutches.
You can hardly claim that your generation have ‘managed quite well’………..certainly never managed to create a ‘robust society’! Never even managed to fight for and ensure the right to full public consultation!
the problem with most adults in the UK is that they are so subserviant and compliant they let government ride over them when it comes to policy implementation and have done for years. Councils are using the coalitions directive to slash what they perceive as non essential services when substantial savings could me made in other areas o council activity (tiers of unneccessary management for a start). You deserve your right to be heard Tom (I fully agree with Sha too). This is the time for action and the right time to make a noise. Unfotunately it is that British stiff upper lip and apathy .of older generations that has, in some part, got our country into the mess it is in today. Go for it on monday and vent your frustrations if required. You need to speak out if your passsionate about something. I leave you with a thought from matin niemoller who wrote this nearly 50 years ago:
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
by that time no one was left to speak up for me
Robbo, if it wasn’t for the older generations, you’d be speaking German.
Phrases such as “welcome to the real world” and “wet nursed” set in such context as above are indeed scathing. You Eric say you see ‘liberalism’, however, to be literally correct; insulting, condescending, nor dictatorial could be regarded as ‘liberal’. You have possibly got confused with ‘Lib/Dem’, to whom these attitudes seem to have become the basics of their ideology. You admit to being ‘biased’ in your opinions which you obviously are, for you fail to see, or even want to consider any viewpoint other than your own. Though you describe your childhood as ‘fantastic’ you use the imagery of a ‘deflated football as a prized possession’ as though to whinge, ‘even though we were deprived’. Well in reality you would hardly have been ‘deprived’ because you would have had what most kids in those days had by way of possessions. Kids these days may have far more ‘possessions’ but they have far less in other ways than years ago. The present day materialistic, selfish and grabbing society doesn’t make for happiness. In your day Eric it would have been the norm for a kid to have a father with a job earning enough to enable his wife to stay at home to look after their children and provide a stable family background. An extended family and friendlier communities provided support. These would have been your ‘crutches’ Eric. Opportunities for young people were more varied. Also it could be expected that any effort to improve ones-self would eventually pay off and would result in a better standard of living, whether it be a university education, a trade apprenticeship or commercial or industrial training, and all or most of this was free….(another of your ‘crutches’ Eric). People working full time hours were paid rates high enough to enable them to pay their rent, bills, etc and still could afford some small luxuries without any state aid. Mortgages could be paid out of just one partner’s salary and were no where near the percentage of total earnings they are today. Work produced positive rewards and there was actually work to be had.
It was easier to make progress in your days Eric. These days people wouldn’t need the ‘crutches’ you infer if the system didn’t cripple them at the outset!
Sha, I love a social discusion. My father was commited to an orpahnage in 1912 when he was one year old. My mother worked as a mill girl thriough the 20’s and as a ‘Rosie the Riveter’ during WW 11. Do you still want to go on? I went to Richard Fairclough, then was transferred to Beamont Tech on ability. I have never had a government check, an unemployment check or government assistance. My parents died when I was young . I now live on a gated private golf course developnment in Texas in happy retirement and you whimps piss me off.
I like you Sha, but the syntax indicates to me that that are not 1939 English. One day maybe you will you will be, but not now. To show you how magnanimous the ‘older’ generation can be, I apologizse for the reason for theSepoy revolt (look it up) – now that’s cofounded a multitude of people !!!!
Dear Eric, your story makes my poor heart bleed! I could tell you an even more heart rending one, however I won’t waste my time because worrying about the lives of people of years gone by….whose lives were probably of similar hardship to a great many of their contemporaries…..is not constructive. What is constructive is doing something about what is happening today. You say your….. parents died when you were young, ….you went to Richard Fairclough, then was transferred to Beamont Tech on ability…. ….but you…..”have never had government assistance”. Who supported you whilst you were a child then?……..I can’t imagine you supported yourself through climbing up and sweeping chimneys as social activist groups in England had banned that kind of thing long before your time. Who paid for your education, from primary right through to Tech level? England’s educational system provides free education to ensure a skilled workforce who will eventually work and pay for it back in taxes which will then fund the next generation’s education. I presume you paid enough tax in England to reimburse the ‘government assistance’ that you actually did have. These days kids pay for further/higher education, if that had been the case in your day would you have prospered so well?
Did you make the money to pay for your; ‘gated private golf course development in Texas’ in England or did you cross the Atlantic chasing better opportunities and if so would you recommend that our young people should just ‘dump and run’?
Whatever, you are now there, in ‘happy retirement’ with nothing better to do but sit and criticise those in a far off country for trying to retain a service which benefits our young people. You from a country with the widest gap between rich and poor and with an obsessional level culture of materialism could not be expected to understand those with regard to social concerns. If you could you might do something about the problems in your own country, the social dysfunction of which has led to the need for you to enclose yourself in a ‘gated’ development. With regards to your insults, from my reply to you Eric you will probably have realised by now that conceited, shallow, gobby Texans actually piss me off!
Tom take no notice of Shas advice to take no notice of my comments because Sha’s no more right than I am, it’s what’s called having a different opinion. I’m never afraid to apologize if I make a mistake but here I stand by every word that I said including the term “wet nursing”.
Tom, take no notice of Bill’s advice to take no notice of Sha’s advice to take no notice of Bill’s comments. Because Sha’s a lot less apathetic and a lot more positive than Bill……..and has a better sense of humour to boot!!!
Tom – I can understand your frustration and I know you want to be the next Labour MP for Warrington North even though Helen Jones MP sees Cllr Kelly Simcock as a threat to her. May be this was why 4 Labour Cllrs meet for drinks to plot the down fall of the Labour Group Leader.
But I understand that it is Connexions that is failing and throwing mine and your parents hard earned cash down the grid.
Protest by all means but be balanced and don’t just dance the dance to the Labour tune of spend and spend until its all gone.
We have all paid into the pot that has enabled you to have a cheerised education.
Don’t talk daft he would just have a funny march
Your away with the mixer – are you a tax dodger or have you paid your way?
I’m not a Labour Party member and I’m from the South, hence the “Warrington South” 😉
Also within my Youth Parliament role I am politically neutral and represent the views of young people only.
Thanks 🙂
Tom…… above you see a prime example of what old age does to a person……. Welcome to your future!! 🙂
I agree that assistance should be given to our less fortunate youth, but to the ones who cannot be bothered with their own education because they are playing “Call of Duty” on their x-box do not deserve these kind of government funded initiatives (be it locally or centrally). Before anyone starts to slate me, I grew up in the Sega Megadrive era and i actually owned one, but I took responsibility for my own future and worked hard to where I have got to today (Homework completed before Sega). And i sincerely hope that the useful facilities set up to help the disadvantaged children of the town do not suffer because they are the ones that really need help, not the bums that choose x-box over homework! Good luck with your protest and i hope it bears fruition for the genuinely needy children of Warrington
Aspirations Tom