I had the great pleasure of attending a Market Lavington Youth Council meeting recently. It was fantastic to see young people come together in the evening to discuss the issues that they see in the community.
The young people from St Barnabas and Lavington elected a Chair and Vice Chair and set some initial projects in motion. As adults we often try to make the community better for young people, investing in play equipment, building skate parks or holding events etc. It is fair to say that as adults we don’t always request the input of the young people in these projects, although this is starting to change. Youth Councils are important because they give our young people a voice and help us to understand how things look from their position in society. Well done to everyone who helped setup the Market Lavington Youth Council and long may it continue!
Any ideas you might have to improve our community, from youth activities and social events to environmental and nature-based projects could be supported by your local parish council and Wiltshire Council so drop me a line or your local parish council to get things rolling.
I recently attended an event in Devizes focusing on Anti-Social Behaviour with a focus on young people. As you will have seen in the news, there have been some alarming incidents in the town. I was very pleased to see so many stakeholders at the event. Various Wiltshire Council departments were joined by Wiltshire Police, the Devizes CCTV partnership, Motiv8 a youth focused drug advice programme, Devizes Town Council, Youth Mentoring Teams, Youth Justice Workers and Youth For Christ. It was reassuring to see so many people invested in resolving issues in the town, which, are very much the result of a small number of individuals rather than a problem with youngsters across the board.
And finally, a brief welcome to the new managers of The Royal Oak in Easterton, Dave and Nikki. I wish them every success with the pub and I hope that we can support them as much as possible.
You may contact me about this or any other matter by email to dominic.muns@wiltshire.gov.uk or by phone on 07585 394 178.
