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Camden News - SIMON WROE
Published: 23 October 2008

Labour to focus by-election fight on youth services issue

LABOUR will next try to wrest a council seat from the Liberal Democrats by attacking their rivals on the thorny issue of youth provision.
Awale Olad, who is attempting to become the first Somali councillor to be elected in Camden, said the area’s youth had been failed by the Town Hall policy of “diverting money away” from the borough’s most deprived estates.
The Labour candidate is aiming to get voters to focus on hard issues in the run-up to next Thursday’s Kentish Town by-election. Disagreements over planning and licensing matters have so far pock-marked debates.
Mr Olad, 23, a voluntary youth worker, said: “The council has failed these kids. I don’t think they have looked into dealing with them properly.
“I don’t believe kids are feral – anti-social behaviour can be prevented by providing the right services for children.”
He said that while services at Castlehaven Youth Club, Highgate New Town and Queen’s Crescent had all been cut after council funding dried up, £10million in spending surplus had been languishing in Town Hall coffers.
Lib Dem candidate Nick Russell, who is trying to defend the seat after former Lib Dem councillor Philip Thompson surrendered his seat to follow a university course in Arizona, insisted spending on youth provisions had increased under the current administration.
He defended the decision to reduce funding for certain youth centres, saying: “Other clubs had made bids for funding that were more comprehensive. We had to allocate on merit. A common Labour line is that we’re taking from poor areas and giving to rich areas – that just isn’t true. The party inherited a Labour budget that included a cut to youth services by 11 per cent. We restored that cut.”
The Green candidate is Victoria Green and the Tories are represented by former councillor Peter Horne.

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