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Youth funding matters
• AS chair of one of the community centres refused funding for universal youth work by Councillor John Bryant I wrote to him seeking answers to a number of questions.
I am informed that he did not consult ward councillors in Gospel Oak and Haverstock about turning down our application.
Decisions were “based on geograpical areas and the numbers of young people in the wards in each area”.
Nor did he consult the police who are well aware of the problems of anti-social behaviour in our area and, indeed, are very supportive of our work.
Camden Council’s deprivation index which indicates Gospel Oak is the most deprived ward in Camden did not feature as one of the criteria.
Universal youth work plays an important part in preventing young people from slipping into anti-social and criminal behaviour.
Surely funding should be targeted on those areas with high deprivation and account taken of the views of the police and local ward councillors who are in touch, presumably, with what is actually happening on the ground.
At Queen’s Crescent Community Centre we must now hope that the funding we have received from charitable trusts will go some way to making up for the refusal of Mr Bryant to fund us.
Mick Farrant
Chair, QCCA Ltd
Oak Village, NW5
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