GROWING anger about the lack of council-run activities for young people erupted at a recent police/community consultative group meeting when residents in Blackfen, Welling, Erith, Slade Green, Foots Cray and North Cray and Northumberland Heath demanded to how much was being spent on youth services.

Concerned youth workers also contacted the News Shopper, worried at the gradual decline in services for young people.

So does Bexley's claim to be one of the highest spenders on youth in the country, committing £1.79m, stand up to analysis?

In the last five years Bexley has closed four youth centres which it plans to replace with other facilities.

The cyber cafe in the Erith library basement which was meant to be a drop-in centre for young people and partially replace South Reach youth centre is now being run by the library service, although it is still available to young people.

Just two sessions a week are provided by a voluntary group at the youth and family centre in West Street, Erith, even though it is meant to provide for youngsters from the new Ocean Park estate and from Northumberland Heath and South Reach centres.

North Heath lodge, a temporary replacement for the now closed Northumberland Heath youth centre, is used as a base for detached youth workers and the voluntary group Mentoring Plus.

Bexley says it is still talking to possible partners for a youth project based in the former Northumberland Heath library, in Bexley Road.

Welling youth centre, in Lovel Avenue, is used for the New Deal government scheme for the young unemployed and Bexley Training Group, but does provide sessions for karate, trampolining and a music project.

Bexley says it also ran several summer projects including residential trips and days out.

It says there are 19 youth programmes running across the borough but other providers such as the Bexley Centre for Music and Dance and voluntary groups should also be included as they receive council cash.

The council employs six full-time youth workers (one seconded to the youth offending team) plus two trainees. It also pays for 18,333 part-time youth work hours a year.

Bexley claims many young people prefer working with specialists like sports coaches rather than activities with youth workers.

It says it has changed the emphasis of its youth work to fit in with what today's young people want. It points out lots of other groups provide activities for the borough's young people.

To compound the problems, the council officer responsible for the youth service, assistant director of education and leisure Jim Agnew, has resigned. In a scathing resignation letter, Mr Agnew, who only joined Bexley in June, spoke of a "feeling I could find something more fulfilling to do with my life" after spending his time in a briefing meeting of "inconsequential silliness".

He says when he inherited responsibility for Bexley's youth service it was "in a condition which I believe hardly reflects well on those who have been previously charged with its leadership".

He added: "It cannot be good for any service to work its way through senior managers in the way the youth service here appears to do."

Mr Agnew, who leaves the borough on December 31, described it as a "stifling, centralised and old fashioned place to work".

One youth centre which has no problem providing diversions for youngsters is the Danson youth centre, in Bexleyheath.

It is open every week night and on Saturday mornings and has a registered membership of more than 2,000 from all over the borough.

It caters for young people aged five to 25, but its largest membership is aged between nine and 18. Much of its attraction for youngsters is its wide programme of activities.

And when the centre is not being used for young people, it is occupied during day with adult and community activities.

Last year, Bexley Council decided, after 40 years, to allow the centre to split off from the rest of the youth service. It is now run independently by the Danson Youth Trust, which was officially launched last Thursday, December 6.

This year it is being financed by a grant of £134,000 from Bexley, but it is also free to bid for other grants and funds. It also run services during half term and holidays.

Which begs the question how many £134,000 can go into £1.79m?

December 7, 2001 13:13