TEENAGERS at three high schools are to stage a protest today over council cuts to services for young people, The National can reveal.
Fourth year pupils at Hermitage Academy in Helensburgh, Oban High School and Campbeltown High are to take action one day before Argyll and Bute Council meets to decide on its new budget.
They fear planned cuts to the Youth Service team will mean they lose key opportunities to meet, gain skills and influence police and politicians through programmed activities.
The team works with youngsters aged 11-25 to “improve their life chances through learning, personal development and active citizenship”.
Delivered under the Community Learning umbrella, this includes preparing them for work and reducing youth unemployment, as well as supporting them into “positive destinations” like further education.
Activities include a youth forum that unites youngsters from around the diverse geographical area, which takes in islands, coastal communities and towns, as well as chances to address policy makers and take part in a skills-building summer camp where volunteering earns them places on organised trips.
However, 17 staff members could now be cut.
One youngster, who The National has agreed not to name, said: “In this budget, the council are proposing to cut the Youth Services budget massively. This means that they will no longer be able to provide the same quality services and events that have had such a positive impact on young people in Argyll, as they will lose 57% of the team.
“These cuts will affect all young people in Argyll and that is why there will be a pupil walkout.
“This is something we all strongly believe in.”
The protest will see pupils down pens to hold demos of 10-20 minutes within school grounds.
A fourth-year pupil at Oban High commented: “Word has spread around the school. It’s all anyone can talk about.”
Argyll and Bute Council has made successive rounds of cuts in recent years, provoking outcry from families in 2015 over “savage” reductions to services for children with additional support needs.
Overall, £51 million has been slashed from operations since 2010.
In December, deputy leader Gary Mulvaney, a Tory councillor, said the local authority now faced an estimated £9m funding gap as a result of Scottish Government spending decisions, stating: “This would be a considerable amount at any time, but coming after years of funding cuts already, it will demand particularly difficult decisions to be made.”
Earlier this month LibDem leader Aileen Morton put the finance gap at £7.9m as fresh budget plans were revealed.
These include increasing car parking charges above inflation and raising council tax by almost 4.8% next year, the maximum currently allowed.
It also includes reducing community warden staff by half, a move that would leave the remaining employees – who remove graffiti, tackle litter and enforce fixed penalty notices – each covering an area averaging 670 miles.
Other suggestions set to be voted on include streamlining managerial roles in departments including economic growth, biodiversity and marine and coastal development.
Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, education policy lead, told The National she had been informed about the move by a Hermitage Academy pupil, adding: “Young people are expressing their views and I have no problem with that. Having been active politically my entire life, I listened to her comments and her views and encouraged their activism.
“That’s what we want to see from our young people – being engaged.”
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