Tony Harris yet again denounces Waddon Youth Club only on this occasion incorrectly accuses the Council of a scandalous misuse of money with regard to the Summer Splash programme. His facts are wrong.

The Summer Splash programme was funded by the Youth Justice Board (YJB), not Croydon Council.. The programme was designed by the YJB with a requirement that young people from the Waddon area attend.

The programme attracted over 1000 attendances, the vast majority of whom were indeed from the Waddon area. Croydon's Youth Service should be congratulated for responding to a request from the YJB to accommodate, at short notice, a project which provided 150 young people from Waddon with an opportunity to take part in a range of quality activities over the summer period.

The YJB will evaluate a number of projects like this in terms of their success in providing activities for young people and whether this had an effect on youth crime in those areas. Certainly anecdotal reports from Waddon residents suggest that this summer was one of the quietest on the estate for some years.

It is true that Waddon has had a chequered history until recently because we, like all other youth organisations throughout the country, have found it difficult to recruit youth workers.

However, we now have a permanent full time youth worker in place with substantial part time youth worker support and the team are full engaged in providing a range of youth club activities. In addition both the highly successful Prince's Trust Volunteer programme and Youth Service Disability Project are based at the Centre and make full and regular use of the facilities.

All in all, the youth club provides a valuable resource for the young people of Waddon which we, and the local people, are proud of.

Coun. Louisa Woodley

Cabinet Member for Education

December 13, 2001 14:30