16 April 2008
Young people to combat smoking
More needs to be done to encourage young people in Wealden not to smoke according the district's Youth Cabinet members.
At a meeting of Wealden District Council's Youth Matters Group, councillors and officers at Wealden District Council learnt first hand of the continuing concerns about smoking among young people from the two Wealden representatives of the East Sussex Youth Cabinet, James Davies and Tahrema Chowdhury.
Taking action to alert young people to the dangers of smoking is one of three priorities for the East Sussex Youth Cabinet.
"We don't want to preach to people to stop smoking. We realise it's down to personal choice," said Tahrema Chowdhury. "But we do want people to realise the significance of what they are doing."
The Youth Cabinet is making a DVD to feature the views of young people on smoking which it hopes to screen at schools and college in the district and on the internet.
"When many of Wealden's councillors were young, the dangers to health associated with smoking were not so widely publicised," said Councillor Margaret Kirkpatrick, the Wealden Cabinet member who chairs the Youth Matters Group. "However I think we begin to realise the scale of the problem today when, despite all we know about the health risk, young people are still taking up smoking."
The other two priorities for the Youth Cabinet are drugs and the lack of activities for young people - characterised as 'Things to do, Places to go'. The three priorities were the emergent themes during the election of the East Sussex Youth Cabinet.
The members of the East Sussex Youth Cabinet were welcomed to Wealden by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Pam Doodes, who joined the meeting, as did Chief Executive Charles Lant.
"We are very much looking forward to working with Wealden District Council to help highlight these issues," said James Davies, who is also the deputy member of the UK Youth Parliament, representing Lewes and Wealden.
"I believe organisations like the Youth Cabinet have an important part to play by informing the work of the other councils in the area, whether at district and county level, or parish and towns," said Councillor Doodes. "Having thoughtful, articulate young people helping discuss the future provision of services is most welcome. "
"The need to improve activities for young people featured strongly in the recent household satisfaction survey, and in the additional online survey of young people we carried out on the internet. As well as a mobile activities project for youngsters in villages and towns in the district, we will also be promoting sport and fitness events for young people in our Wealden on the Move initiative, for which we have received a Sport England grant of over £46,000."
Two years ago, Wealden Youth Matters group helped launch the Wealden youth website, which is aimed at young people aged 10-19, providing online information and advice about health, safety, careers, social problems and lifestyle issues. The Group also works to improve the housing and sporting opportunities for young people, and through the Local Democracy Week road show, highlights local democracy and the role of local authorities in secondary schools.
