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£10m in kitty, but still youth clubs suffer cuts
• THANK you so much for the brilliant coverage you gave Castlehaven Community Association (CCA) (Lib Dems’ crime pledge is undermined by ‘gaffe’, and One life, one great night out, August 14).
To quote Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne stating that The Haven, which CCA runs, was “a good example of a project we would like to see across the whole country” and to have Lib Dem councillors Keith Moffitt and Janet Grauberg also praising the club, but then pointing out the Lib Dem-run council has cut funding by half to this very same project is very helpful to our cause. We would very much like to persuade the council to reinstate our grant.
As was pointed out last week in the letters page, the council has a £10million surplus. Can the senior councillors sit round a table and talk to us about the allocation of this, as was suggested last week during their visit to our club? Any sensible person can see that cutting the budget in half will harm the very work that has been praised.
BRENDA GARDNER
Chairwoman, Castlehaven Community Association trustees
• IT is good to know the present political administration is interested in youth work to the extent that it invited a senior Lib Dem politician to Castlehaven Youth Centre even though its grant had been slashed.
I wonder if Chris Huhne took a walk along the canal to see the Jubilee Centre, which was closed for lack of funds. A short journey on the 24 bus would have brought Mr Huhne to Queen’s Crescent Community Centre, which has been refused funding for universal youth work two years running.
Had he come last Tuesday he would have seen us having to turn away a group of young people because we had no youth workers available.
On another day we could have shown him the work that will have to stop at the end of the year because of lack of funds.
Is it not time to stop the political football match around youth work and get together to discuss a policy and practice which meet the needs (and are adequately funded) of the young people in the most deprived areas of Camden?
MICK FARRANT
Oak Village, NW5
• IN June, as I’ve done for many years, I served on the barbecue at Primrose Hill summer fair under the redoubtable Keith Bird, a community champion who has run the popular stall for more than 20 years. Some fantastic kids from Haverstock School who helped last year also came back. It’s this spirit which makes the barbecue a popular part of the fair as well as raising funds for the community association.
Last year, daft council policies tried to stop the barbecue but, after fierce protests, thankfully common sense prevailed, and this summer everyone could enjoy the day – and barbecue – again.
Fast forward a couple of months. Just across the railway was the festival at Castlehaven in Camden Town. Again it’s a great event. Castlehaven Community Association was on show. It runs services for young and older people, including a superb youth club. I declare an interest as a trustee, but I am unapologetic about the great work of the staff and the activities on offer for kids.
Camden Town isn’t the easiest area in which to grow up but a place like the Haven Youth Project certainly can help. However, a shadow has been cast. The youth club’s council funding has been cut by more than 50 per cent, threatening its very existence. A deputation to the council in April warned of the damage which as the weeks march on will become a reality.
Communities and popular facilities, including the two outlined here, are not built in a day but they can be undermined very quickly by decisions like this cut. Please let common sense prevail. I would strongly urge this cut to be looked at again.
JAKE SUMNER
NW1
• I WOULD like to thank the New Journal for highlighting yet another gaffe made by the Lib Dem-Tory administration. What hypocrisy! MP Chris Huhne, Lib Dem council leader Keith Moffitt and executive member Janet Grauberg praising the work of the Castlehaven Community Association (CCA) yet cutting its funding for the provision of services to young people.
As stated by CCA chief executive Eleanor Botwright, “this funding cut means the centre could be looking at redundancies or downsizing”.
This excellent project, as highlighted by the Lib Dems, should be praised for its work and rewarded with funding, not just words. Where’s the action to follow up those empty words? Last year, Camden Council had an underspend of more than £10million. I would like to plead with the administration to spend some of that underspend on services for young people in some of the most deprived areas in Camden.
The Samuel Lithgow Youth Centre, in my ward, has also had its funding cut. This is an excellent project that has raised more than £1million to refurbish the youth centre, only to be shocked by the news that the council is cutting its revenue funding.
This means they will have an excellent facility but no youth workers to work with the young people.
The Regent’s Park estate has had lots of problems with anti-social behaviour and conflict among young people but work done by the Samuel Lithgow Youth Centre and the Surma Youth Centre has helped to reduce the anti-social behaviour and the youth conflict.
The Queen’s Crescent Community Association is yet another excellent project that has had its youth funding cut. This is in an area which has been at the centre of some horrific conflicts involving groups of young people.
CLLR NASIM ALI
Labour, Regent’s Park ward
• IT was disappointing to read your misleading article on Castlehaven Community Association.
Every year the council has to make the difficult decision of which groups receive funding and each year we receive a greater number of applicants for funding than there is available in the pot. This year, for both targeted and universal voluntary sector youth work, we had 35 applications, totalling £1,220,181 for only £420,000 worth of funds.
Castlehaven is a fantastic project and that is why the council awarded it £377,557 this year.
It would be great if the council could give all the deserving projects and community groups in the borough the funding they apply for but unfortunately we do not have a bottomless pot of money. We wish we did. We do, however, want to dispel the myth that the council has cut funding to youth services.
This is not true. Overall, the council has ploughed more money than ever into facilities for children and young people, with nearly £700,000 extra available for 2008-09.
But we know it will take every part of the community pulling together to help give every young person in Camden the opportunity to succeed.
That’s why we’ve set up a youth council to give young people a strong voice, why we are working with schools and colleges to support our young people in education and why we are looking at every way to give Camden’s young people the best chance to achieve their potential.
For example, this year’s summer programme for teenagers and young people is bigger and better than ever before.
We consulted some 700 young people who took part in our programme last year and as a result have an even more exciting range of activities on offer, ranging from street dance to urban poetry.
As a council, we are committed to providing the best services and support to our young people and their families, and we would urge as many young people as possible to take part in this year’s summer activities and enjoy the best of what Camden has to offer.
CLLR KEITH MOFFITT
Lib Dem leader of Camden Council
Cllr Janet Grauberg
Lib Dem executive member for children
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