The wait is over, the votes have been counted and the Youth Champion 2010 for the Vale of Glamorgan Council has been announced. The winner is the council’s youngest member, Cllr Chris Elmore.
Chris was elected to represent Barry’s Castleland ward in 2008, at the age of just 24. He has worked on several local campaigns including keeping free bus travel for sixth form students in Vale schools and the campaign for a cinema in Barry.
Cllr Elmore went head-to-head with three other Vale of Glamorgan councillors – Leader of the council Gordon Kemp, Cllr Steffan Wiliam and Cllr Gwyn John – in the election for Youth Champion, which was organised as part of Local Democracy Week. Young people were able to examine the councillors’ manifestos on the Swoosh website (www.swoosh.me.uk) before casting their vote. With nearly 1000 votes Chris proved to be the most popular candidate with young people in the Vale.
Cllr Elmore said: “I am really looking forward to the role of representing young people’s views on the council and working with them to try and improve the service provided to young people. I would also like to support the many different organisations that support young people in the Vale of Glamorgan and I would like to start this off by working with the groups, organisations and schools that I already work with in my role as a volunteer, local resident and councillor.”
Local young people also embraced the evening, on-line ‘Question Time’ organised during Local Democracy Week. Cabinet members were at hand each evening to answer questions about issues such as crime, education, transport and the environment, youth facilities and health.
Questions to councillors included:
- Why do young people not know their councillors? What can you do to improve this?
- Why are police allowed to break up my group of friends just for socialising?
- Can we have more things for young people to do in Barry e.g. cinema, free gym for under 18s, nightclub for under 18s?
- Can we have a more regular bus service and more buses in the evenings? Can young people also have a free bus pass or cheaper tickets?
Local Democracy Week is a national event that aims to make councils more relevant and useful to young people and to encourage conversations between councillors, local officials and young people. The organisers say this year’s events were a success and encouraged young people to ‘take part, take power’.
