Give our young people something to do - Maines

6.37.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 6th May 2004

Simon Hughes recently visited 'The Hub' in St. Mary Cray - but Chris Maines is asking why funding for facilties like this has been cut by Bromley Tories

Teenagers hanging around local streets are becoming a more frequent sight, according to Cllr Chris Maines, who says "I am frequently contacted by parents and other residents concerned that younger people have nothing interesting to do."

Cllr Chris Maines, Leader of the local Liberal Democrats, believes the cause of the growing problem can be directly linked to a £200,000 cut in Youth Service funding by Bromley Council. "In addition to reducing resources to the organisations that support local young people, Bromley Council closed the Harvington Skateboarding Park, says Cllr Maines "this has pushed skateboarders into town centres and residential areas and added to the problem."

The total expenditure on the Youth Service in 2001/02 was £1,555,000 this was reduced over the next two years to £1,352,000 a cut of 13% with no allowance for inflation. " If the organisations that provide facilities are continually fighting budget cuts and looking for alternative funding, they cannot devote the time and energy into meeting the changing needs of our young people," points out Cllr Chris Maines.

"Bromley Council should have a strategy, firstly, to find out what young people want and secondly to work with others to make those facilities available," says Cllr Chris Maines "As London Mayor, Simon Hughes would work with Bromley to provide two more adventurous activities in the Borough, if that is what the young people wanted."

Local residents have frequently cited the shortage of facilities for young people as major problem in Bromley. Residents are also concerned about anti-social behaviour, such as graffiti, scooters and motor bikes street racing and smashed bus shelters.

"It might only be a minority of young people that cause problems but there is clearly a link between these two concerns." Says Cllr Maines.