About 20 of the Councils 126 councillors attended a discussion this afternoon about changes to the youth service.

I was concerned when I went in about the £300,000 cut to the service and remain concerned now.

Officers were at pains to state that the number of youth sessions would continue, but the number of youth workers and the hours they work are being cut significantly. It also appears that there may be  a disproportionate cut in some areas compared to others.

This led me to question the changes. We were told there would be no impact to frontline service, but this is either not the entire story, or we have been wasting money for years.

My personal view is that if you cut the hours of youth workers down to just the time spent in youth sessions, then there is no opportunity for outreach work, no opportunity to work up projects, less chance for youth workers to help bring in outside funding such as from the Big lottery, and all this will lead to an impact on the quality of the service.

Officers say that five area managers will now do all this. Something just doesn’t add up. Perhaps I will be shown to be wrong, but for me this is a step which needs reconsidering, which is why I asked for the cut to be delayed for a year, we must wait to see what Labour does in its budget, but I won’t hold my breath.