How has the recession hit young voters in Whitley Bay?

Julie says there's nothing for kids to do in Whitley Bay

It used to be well-known for stag and hen parties, a seaside town with plenty of bars and clubs but since the recession hit, Whitley Bay, in north east England , has been struggling like many towns across the UK.

Nineteen-year-old Danielle, a single mum and first time voter said the town had been hit quite hard: "The nightlife's kind of dropped and there are a lot of shops closing, that makes people not want to come here."

"It's gone downhill really badly," added 23-year-old Stacey, a PE teacher.

The town's part of the Tynemouth constituency, held by Labour at the last general election.

Shops standing empty are a familiar theme on high streets up and down the country and it's no different in Whitley Bay. Out of 341 stores in the town centre 44 have closed - more than one in 10.

"The amusements - everyone used to come down but now it's dire, it's really, really bad," said Julie, a McDonald's manager. "I know it's getting refurbished but there's still nothing there for kids to do."

'It's empty'

And with businesses shutting down people have been losing jobs.

Stacey said it's definitely noticeable around town: "(There's) more unemployment around here, you come down and you see it's empty. But on the streets, there's hundreds of people just walking around doing nothing because there's nothing to do.

"There's no shops open. Even if they had voluntary work - but there's no voluntary work round here."

Chris Crawford, a trained chef, has been out of work for nine months after the restaurant he worked at on Whitley Bay's seafront closed. The 24-year-old has been busy looking for another job but so far hasn't got anywhere.

"It's been really hard," he admitted. "Just struggling with money, housing benefit, the lot.

"I've applied for 186 jobs in six months and I've had four interviews and haven't had any success on them either. I'm on the internet every day, going to the job centre every day, applying for loads of jobs, but don't seem to get any."

Young and jobless

Chris is one of more than 2.5 million people out for work in the UK.

Young people like him have been the hardest hit when it comes to job losses during the recession. Latest figures show between December 2009 and February 2010 the number of jobless 16-24-year-olds went up by 4,000 to 929,000.

Young people like Chris have been hardest hit by the recession

Danielle tried to go back to college last year but couldn't get a nursery place there and private childcare for her daughter was too expensive.

She also admitted hating the negative ideas that some people have about young mums and said she was keen to get back into education.

"I want help not just financially, but stop stereotyping people. Stop assuming that just because someone has a young child they're not going to do anything with their life, they're gonna just sit on benefits.

"Put more money into colleges that do have creches so you can have help and you can be put back into work"

However there are signs that things might be looking up for Whitley Bay.

After all those shop closures North Tyneside council say half a dozen have now reopened, and since 2007 millions has been spent on regeneration. Last year the revamped swimming pool and theatre were back in business.

Here, and in other parts of the country, there's still more to be done . Getting the economy back on track will be one of the biggest jobs for whoever gets in power next week.

Chris says that he hopes that whoever wins will help out his region: "I am going to vote this time because I want to get a job.

"I want to see if there are more prospects for the north east to bring employment to the local people."