A campaign waged by the two female members of the council to increase support for young people gained a partial victory at the council meeting on Thursday evening.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Carol Sparks and Dianne Newman had both wanted the hours for the council’s youth worker increased to fill the working week. The worker currently spends one day a week on youth work and the rest on other duties.
There was a long debate about how the increase would be paid for, with other councillors pointing out that the coming year’s budget had been fixed and was about to go out for the public to scrutinise. Some councillors felt the proposal hadn’t been costed.
In the end, the hours of the youth worker were raised to, in effect, three days a week, with existing money being re-allocated to pay for the extra hours.
But there was scepticism. The council’s Director of Corporate and Community Services, Anna Watt, wondered what the youth officer would do in the extra hours. She pointed out that just giving someone more hours wouldn’t work without extra spending.
She was also worried that existing activities would have to be cut. She cited a series of them: “regular youth activities; regular afternoon teas; a ‘portable’ youth hub; breakfast at the high school on days not currently provided for” as well as teaching teenagers how to write a resume to apply for jobs.
One controversial suggestion by Cr Jeff Smith was that councillors should give up the fees they get for being councillors so the money could fund extra services for young people.
“It’s a brilliant gesture”, he said, “if we just put our hands in our own pockets in order to help disadvantaged children”.
The seven councillors get an annual allowance of $107,000 in total, between the seven of them, and that sum, Cr Smith suggested, would cover the extra costs of Cr Sparks and Cr Newman’s proposals.
There was reluctance to go down that road.
At the end of it, Crs Sparks and Newman got some of what they wanted but not an agreement to use the old shire council headquarters as a “youth hub” – but neither did they propose that formally in the meeting.
Cr Sparks said she was pleased with the decision to set up a young council for the town. “If there are young people in town wanting to be part of the committee, and to make decisions for young people in our town, they should get in touch with me or Dianne Newman”, she said.
Cr Newman was criticised for not attending meetings through the year of a committee she was a member of.
The council chooses a mayor later in the year.
Some councillors feel there is what they call “grandstanding” going on in the run up to the decision.