Some of you may be aware that Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) has suggested that it is going to withdraw funding for youth provision across the county (20 out of 27 youth centres to be axed, including Carterton). It is worth noting that this decision is not set in stone and will be decided at the OCC Cabinet meeting in February 2011.
In response to this disappointing news the Carterton Youth Provision Action Group (CYPAG) has been formed. The CYPAG is a multi-agency group with representation form across the community including the local councils, Thames Valley Police, Schools, Neighbourhood Action Group, Churches and yes, you guessed it – Youth Council too. The purpose of the group is to consider the future needs for the provision of services to young people in Carterton and develop an innovative community led solution.
Yesterday a letter was sent to the OCC Cabinet member for Children, Young People and Families inviting her to come to Carterton and to discuss with us the future of youth provision for the town.
Whilst we continue to object to the cut in youth provision we also recognise that our objection may have no influence on the final decision, therefore we are already working hard to figure out the best long-term solution. Work is now underway to benchmark the current state and to evaluate what services are essential, desirable or simply nice to have. Further work is underway to quantify the value of outreach work and the likely impact on the community if this service was withdrawn, and work is also underway to understand the future of the Allandale site and whether the building will be made available to the community even if the funding for youth workers is indeed axed.
The group will meet again in the New Year when we will continue this essential work to establish what Carterton needs in respect of services to young people and then work to find that community led solution. p>
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Yth Cllr Yallop for so ably representing the youth council and in fact all the young people of Carterton. Matty will report to the Youth Council when we next meet on Jan 12th.
Cllr Adrian Coomber
