It was with deep alarm that the Northway Youth Partnership in Oxford recently discussed the county council’s proposal to cut youth services in Northway and across the city.
What we are seeing is a Government and a county council administration that seems hell-bent on attacking young people and the services they use and need.
The headlines in recent days have been about university tuition fees and the impact of the proposals to triple the burden on our young people who wish to go into further and higher education.
The youth service cuts in Oxfordshire under the euphemism of ‘Early Intervention’ are simply another attack, in this case on a broader group of young people, who use and rely on the youth service for community education, social integration and inclusion, leisure and recreation.
The cuts in Oxford are particularly hard to stomach, because the city contains pockets of the greatest need in the county (along with parts of Banbury and Bicester) some of which are among the 10 per cent of neighbourhoods identified nationally requiring support due to poverty and deprivation.
Northway Youth Partnership will seek out ways to alleviate the cuts by working in partnership with local voluntary, church and community bodies.
However, we discussed the greater difficulty of finding such means in an area which has low household incomes and high need compared to more affluent parts of the county.
The ‘Big Society’ approach being championed by the Con-Dem Government and the county administration is simply laughable, when the target group has most to lose from these cuts are not earning and where their families are struggling to keep house and home together.
The Tory administration at County Hall must think again about cutting vital local services and not pursue doctrinaire proposals which will hurt those most in need. The young are all our future.
Our alarm at the proposed cuts was compounded by learning from youth workers that there had been no discussion or clear information given by management at County Hall, despite the announcement of these cuts some weeks ago. That is no way to treat a loyal and dedicated workforce.
Roy Darke, County councillor for Headington Hill & Northway, On behalf of Northway Youth Partnership, Edgeway Road, Oxford
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