Blackpool Council pledges to improve ‘boring’ youth activities

Council leader Lynn Williams said young people were "an absolute priority"

Blackpool Council has promised to improve activities for children after a review found many young people found them "boring".

While younger children join youth groups, attendance declines after the age of 14, especially among teenage girls, the report showed.

The authority said it hoped to use the results of the survey of people aged 7-25 to improve services.

Council leader Lynn Williams said young people were "an absolute priority".

The review, carried out by the National Youth Agency and Youth Focus North West, recommended a co-ordinated town-wide strategy including a young people's group to oversee its implementation.

The review also found youth workers were under-resourced with many parents saying they could not afford to send their children to activities, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

'So important'

The report said: "When reasons for not attending youth centres were explored there was a perception they were 'boring', and the resources and facilities available within them were unappealing.

"This was a prominent view with the participants who were 16 and over."

The council cut back its £600,000 youth services budget in 2013-14 after having to find £14m of savings.

Bosses then established a Youth Fund of £250,000 to plug the gap and at one point council spending on young people dropped to £12 per head from £150.

Ms Williams said: "Our children and young people are an absolute priority. How we can support and enable them to be happy and flourish is so important."

Youth services are seen as vital in preventing juvenile crime, with figures showing Blackpool's inner wards including Bloomfield, Claremont, Talbot and Brunswick, have the greatest concentration of problems.

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