TEENAGERS in Melksham will be hit by more cuts to youth services as Wiltshire Council looks to lay off 11 of its remaining 18 youth workers, a local councillor has said.
Melksham and Wiltshire councillor and chair of youth work organisation Young Melksham, Jon Hubbard, has said he is horrified by the latest round of ‘brutal’ cuts to young people’s services.
It was recently revealed that Wiltshire Council’s youth service provision would be reduced from 18 community youth officers to just seven ‘locality youth facilitators’ for the entire county.
The cut comes after 126 youth work jobs were cut just two years ago, and will see one youth worker allocated to every 14,000 teenagers, cllr Hubbard told Melksham News.
He said, “I’m horrified by this decision. Young people are again taking an unfair hit, and we’re going to see a significant impact across Wiltshire and here in Melksham.
“I don’t think the town will be as badly hit as others because of the success Young Melksham has had in establishing itself, but we will be challenged.
“It is just a money-saving exercise for the council, but young people I’ve spoken to don’t understand why they’re being punished, or what they’ve done to deserve their services being taken away.
“Wiltshire Council has a scorched earth policy when it comes to youth services. To put it into perspective, there will be one youth facilitator to every 14,000 13 to 19 year-olds in Wiltshire.”
Young Melksham currently runs an increasingly successful youth club for three nights a week at the Canberra Centre on Spa Road, after negotiating a two-year lease on the building.
However cllr Hubbard, who has 24 years of experience working with young people, said Wiltshire Council will eventually sell the Canberra and young people will again be without a space to call their own.
“In local authority cuts we tend to see cycles of services being cut, then the impact is noticed, then there is reinvestment in that sector,” cllr Hubbard continued. “But the cuts to youth services have been so brutal and so extensive that there’s nothing left to invest in.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if in 12 months there are no youth workers at all. Young Melksham has worked very closely with Melksham’s youth officer, Ceri Evans, and young people at the centre are heartbroken that his job is at risk.
“We would also find it hard to run certain activities without his input, especially the time credits scheme and trips away.
“Things have changed a lot since I started working with young people, and volunteers are now expected to do what, five years ago, was being done by fully qualified youth workers employed by the council.
“I am very passionate about youth work and am incredibly angry and indeed distressed at the unacceptable and disproportionate cuts that are repeatedly being imposed on our youth service.”
