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Youth Service or Youth 'dissed'?
(February 27, 2014)Positive Spin on Bad News for Youngsters
VFW Commentary
Do we need to re-think our approach to the spending of local taxation on providing opportunities for youngsters who are living in Warminster without a cinema, a bowling alley, a go-kart track, and all the other requests that those local councillors who positively strive to talk to them receive?
In the local newspapers the latest 'spin' from county hall is that they have a positive message to the community that the campaign about the cuts to this service is no longer wrong.
We have an interest in this. So half of the cut to the youth services is not going ahead. That still means half of the cut is going ahead. They want the town council and others to step in.
'Are you dissing me' sticks in my mind when I tried to talk to a youngster wearing a baseball cap the wrong way round.
Councillors on the town council nearly succeeded arguing against raising extra taxation to cope with this future that faces them. It will not be just about the Youth Centre in the days, weeks and months to come.
Half of the cut to youth services is still going ahead from a very small budget spent by county hall. Locals still say the cut is smaller than the Councillor expenses scandal at county hall.
This is just as those in our local communities are increasingly taking an interest in our saying 'localism' is not working.
This is another example of the mess national government has made of local government.
As well as all this the town council is not up to the job of taking on the former 'urban district council' role which was lost when West Wiltshire District Council disappeared.
The town council is a parish council, only having a bigger population than villages, which failed to attract candidates at the last election for the majotity of its seats up for grabs.
We do need to create a partnership of local community involvement with the town council and others but the example from the government and the county is very poor.
'Do it or do it not. We do not care!' seems to be their attitude.