The Bradley Stoke Journal

Spending on youth provision by Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) looks set to be slashed by 39% from April if draft budget plans are approved at a meeting next week.

The news comes as young people await the outcome of a two month consultation into ‘youth needs’ in the town that was run by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) during November and December last year.

The Town Council agreed a budget of £61,500 for ‘youth funding’ in 2011/2012 – with all of this amount being paid to Southern Brooks Community Partnership (SBCP), the organisation contracted to run the town’s sole youth club at the Brook Way Activity Centre.

In July 2011, the two Councils decided they weren’t happy with the way the club was being run and SBCP’s contract was terminated, leading to 13 youth workers being issued with redundancy notices.

The youth club was closed towards the end of October and since then SGC youth workers have been providing an interim programme of youth activities, including ‘detached’ work to engage young people on the streets.

The Town Council’s budget for ‘youth funding’ in the coming financial year has now been set, subject to final approval, at a similar figure of £60,000.

But it appears that the Council has quietly “absorbed” the costs of other youth-related budget items into the ‘youth funding’ category, leaving just £37,455 available for whatever the two Councils decide should replace the axed youth club.

More: "Absorbed" costs include £8,400 to lock Skate Park gates »

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South Gloucestershire Council and the Town Council are reminding local youngsters about the ‘Youth Needs Survey‘ currently being conducted in Bradley Stoke.

The consultation was started after the two Councils jointly decided to close the town’s only youth club at the Brook Way Activity Centre with effect from the end of October, a move which led to Southern Brooks Community Partnership having to make 13 youth workers redundant.

Interim measures put in place by South Gloucestershire Youth Services since the beginning of November have seen youth workers engaging with youngsters on the streets and the staging of organised sessions including DJ-ing, circus skills, skating, football and music.

To help encourage young people to give their views, an event was recently organised at Bradley Stoke Skate Park, where youth workers gave out copies of the survey to help promote the consultation.

The consultation is open to all 10 to 19-year-olds who live in Bradley Stoke and it runs until 17th December.

Cllr Sheila Cook, executive member for children and young people, said:

“Your answers are important to us because it means that we can use them to shape new services that appeal to more of you and provide something for everyone to enjoy.”

More: "Biggest-ever consultation on youth services", says Mayor »

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) has revealed details of the interim youth provision measures it has put in place following its decision, jointly with Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC), to close the Brook Way Youth Club at the end of last month.

Youth workers will be going out onto the streets on three nights a week to engage with young people congregating at places such as the skate park and the Willow Brook Centre.

The street work will be supplemented by six hours of activity sessions each week – including DJ’ing, football and young women’s projects – taking place at Baileys Court Activity Centre and Bradley Stoke Community School.

Catherine Challinor, a full time youth worker for SGC, said the programme would remain in place until Christmas, after which it might be reviewed following feedback from service users.

Having taken the decision, back in July, to close the Brook Way Youth Club, the Councils have now finally opened a public consultation to ask young people which activities they would like to see provided in the local area. The survey, dubbed “the largest, most in depth consultation regarding youth provision in Bradley Stoke” by Mayor Ben Walker in a recent Town Council newsletter, was supposed to start in September but finally got underway on 1st November.

The Bradley Stoke Youth Needs Survey 2011 runs until 17th December. SGC says it will publish the results of the consultation by the end of January 2012 on its Youth Unlimited website.

More: 13 youth leaders made redundant following Councils’ decision »

Youth clubs in Bradley Stoke are once again facing an uncertain future after local Councils informed the current service provider that they are to withdraw funding from 31st October.

An announcement posted on the website of Southern Brooks Community Partnership (the current provider) earlier this week explains that the Town Council and South Gloucestershire Youth Service have informed the organisation that they are not satisfied with the delivery of youth work in Bradley Stoke:

“We have failed to work with the numbers of young people that they were hoping for, or to engage as fully as they would have liked us to. While both Councils acknowledge that there has been some really good youth work, including the recent residential, they have decided to withdraw funding from Southern Brooks Community Partnership from October 31st 2011.”

SBCP has been delivering youth work in Bradley Stoke for over ten years but its relationship with the Town Council has often been a troubled one. In late 2008, the Council decided it wished to terminate its direct relationship with SBCP and instead work “in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council (SGC)” to provide youth work in the town. The re-think came after one Councillor described the number of youths being engaged by SBCP as “abysmal”.

A lengthy tendering process for a contract governed by the revised working arrangements led to SBCP being re-appointed to run the service until the end of 2012.

Signs that all was not well in the working relationship between the Councils and SBCP surfaced in April when an SGC report described youth club attendance by 13-19 year olds as “very low”. The paper was also critical of SBCP’s inadequate reporting of data to SGC and concern was expressed that Patchway Baptist Church seemed to be no longer contributing to the delivery of youth work (as required by the commissioning agreement).

More: Secret discussions thought to have decided fate of youth contract »

Police in Bradley Stoke are appealing for information after a suspicious incident in which a 6m-high floodlight column at the town’s Brook Way Activity Centre was sawn through, causing it to fall onto the sports courts at the complex.

The felling of the floodlight column late on Tuesday 17th May follows an earlier incident late last year in which a cable supplying power to the six floodlights surrounding the courts was “maliciously” severed.

The two incidents follow continued friction between the youth club based at the centre and residents of neighbouring properties, who claim they have been blighted with increased levels of noise, light pollution (from the floodlights around the sports courts) and anti-social behaviour since Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) moved the youth club to the centre in 2009.

The toppling of the floodlight was followed by a further incident two nights later when a window of one nearby resident’s car was smashed with a brick.

A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police told The Journal:

“Police investigating damage to a lighting stand at the Brook Way Activity Centre on 17th May ask anyone with any information to contact them.”

“Officers have carried out house-to-house enquiries and examined CCTV footage from both the centre and private property nearby in connection with this incident and the smashing of a car window the following night.”

Asked about the outcome of investigations into the previous cable cutting incident, the spokesperson added:

“Police have followed all available lines of enquiry in connection with an earlier incident when cabling for the lights was cut without obtaining sufficient evidence for an arrest.”

Anyone with information about any of these incidents is asked to contact the neighbourhood team at Filton police station on 0845 456 7000. Alternatively contact the independent Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111 (they never ask your name or trace your call).

Read on for details of operational changes the youth club has agreed to make in order to appease local residents »

South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) ruling Cabinet has voted to put an extra £58k into youth provision in Bradley Stoke following lobbying by local Councillors, who claimed that the town was getting a poor deal compared to others in the district.

The decision, which must be ratified by Full Council on 23rd February, came after extra money became available because of the lower than expected cost of the Council’s recently introduced Youth Unltd concessionary transport scheme.

True to form, Monday’s Cabinet meeting was followed within hours by press releases from both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, each claiming credit for the “youth funding boost”.

The Liberal Democrats’ Jon Williams is quoted as saying:

“Bradley Stoke is one of the lowest funded areas of South Gloucestershire for youth work, despite having the highest number of young people, so I am delighted that my persistence has paid off.”

Conservative Rob Jones had a rather different view, commenting:

“Where the LibDems failed, we have succeeded – but it’s the town’s young people who are the real winners from this announcement.”

Continue reading to see the press releases in full »