The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Young people could get more of a say in Holbeach after the parish council pledged to look into setting up a new Youth Council.
It has vowed to look into creating the new group, including any delegated powers it can give it and potentially a budget.
Coun Sam Richardson, said: “The youth council would be a hugely valuable resource to see what younger people want – instead of us asking and giving suggestions they will tell us.
“It’s also important for everybody to have a voice – the youth council would offer this.
“They would also be involved in all aspects of the process, from creation to the democratic process of councils and running their own meeting, if they wanted to procure something like a skateboard park.
“There would be more understanding of how to apply for grants and crowd fund.
“There are a lot of people out there who have fantastic ideas and we need to listen to them.
“I have always believed the younger generations are a under used resource of information and after looking further into it, youth councils are being formed to great success across the country and it’s time we did something similar.”
Parish council chair Stephen Johnson, said: “I think it would be a very good idea to get some young people involved.
We could maybe look at giving them some delegated powers and budgets to manage their own things.
“It’s a fabulous idea especially when you get the youth engaging in the community.”
* Holbeach’s Parish Council is also to look into the number of councillors it has.
Officially there’s 18 councillors on what is understood to be one of the largest parish councils in the country, though five of the positions are currently unfilled.
Coun Rick Stevens raised the issue: “Historically it’s always been 18 councillors with two thirds in the largest ward.
“I’d like to suggest that if the vacancies were filled we’d have too many councillors and adding them to the committee could lead to larger meeting rooms required, which leads to increased cost of hiring and longer meetings due to more discussion.”
However, Coun Rachel Flood highlighted that earlier in the meeting the council had been unable to fill a sub-committee due to a lack of volunteers.
“We’re already struggling to find people to go on some of the bits and pieces,” she said.
It was agreed the council would speak to South Holland District Council and the Lincolnshire Authority of Local Councils to look at the options if the vacancies were not filled.
