Amesbury Town Council

Elections took place on 9^th March 2010 to establish a new Youth Council.  Representatives are from The Stonehenge School and Amesbury-based youth organisations.  The constitution was decided at the first meeting following the election.  The Youth Council will give a voice to the youth of the town, and help to ensure their representation in future local developments.

Minutes from Amesbury Youth Council Meeting 13^th April 2010

Attending the Meeting were:

Ben, Katrina, Jack, Billy, Sarah, Janet and Wendy

Ben opened the meeting welcoming everyone and we welcomed Jack to the Council, who is one of the new recruits from Stonehenge.

Wendy told us that hopefully at the next meeting or soon we will have some training from some British Youth Council representatives.

Wendy gave us all a handout, with things we had to think about for the running of the Youth Council. We decided that:

Meetings would remain informal

Meetings should be public to allow for all Youth to attend and be involved with decision making

We would hold elections every 2 years to renew membership

To advertise the Youth Council we need to make sure as many young people can see the posters etc as possible- Katrina, will be in charge of posters and Ben will set up an email address so that Young people can contact the Youth Council, Ben will provide us with the details when it has been set up

Our Constitution will be similar to the example given to us from Runneymead Youth Council

We will think about a Mission Statement and Aim so that we can publicise the Youth Council well and attract more members

Meetings will be kept to the 2^nd Tuesday of each month starting at 7pm

The Structure will be:

• Ben- Chair and Treasurer
• Sarah Secretary

We were shown our Finance for the Year, which we will get from the Town Council, Ben will need to keep tabs on spending and we will possibly need to do some fundraising, this can be worked into raising our profile. As a youth council we will be able to apply for grants, for projects too

Billy brought up that there is currently stones on the Skate Park, which are dangerous especially when people fall off, there are also problems with Glass as well, Wendy said if there is a problem to call her at the Council office and she will get the Town Caretaker to clean up.

Our main Project, which the youth council have agreed to concentrate on at the moment, is the new Skate Park for Amesbury. The developers at Archers Gate have identified a piece of land, which hopefully we will be able to use providing we get appropriate planning permission.

We therefore now need to work out what people want, start planning so that when we get the go ahead, we are ready to go with what we want. As the developers are paying Wendy suggested we had Cheap, Medium and Expensive designs as no one knows how much money we will get and we need to make sure we include safety features such as floodlighting and stuff.

Billy will look at designs as he has been to a few Skate Parks in other areas and will also ask friends for ideas on what equipment they want.

We will be able to apply for grants and we could maybe do some fundraising for the new Skate Park

It has been suggested that Graffiti is allowed to make the park as the Young peoples own, maybe with a Graffiti weekend so that what is done can be controlled with nothing too rude

Wendy also gave us an update on the situation with the new Harvard Park (Spar Park) due to the vandalism, the new equipment for older people should be installed within 6-8 weeks to hopefully stop further vandalism. It has been suggested that CCTV is installed to catch any culprits.

 The Next Meeting will be on Tuesday 11^th May at 7pm and hopefully there should be representatives from the British Youth Council to give us some training