Young voters in Rhondda Cynon Taff to pick £10,000 project

Young people have been given the chance to decide if £10,000 will be spent on a homelessness, knife crime or mental health project in Rhondda Cynon Taff.

Youth clubs have been turned into polling stations this week and on Thursday, every school council has been allowed to run a poll.

The move is part of Rhondda Cynon Taf council's Youth Engagement and Participation Service (Yeps).

It aims to tackle potential barriers for young people wanting to vote.

The voting choice is between tackling youth homelessness, exploring the fear of knife crime or raising awareness and supporting positive mental health in the borough.

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The winning project will be run announced on 19 July.

"Last year's findings showed that our young people in Rhondda Cynon Taf are interested in voting and are in fact very engaged with the process," said Christina Leyshon, the council's cabinet member for children and young people.

"It also highlighted that they may not have the confidence to take part, due to a lack of knowledge about the voting process - something they wanted to address."

She added that this youth vote was aimed at tackling this by "giving young people the opportunity to vote on something very worthwhile".