Young bear brunt of funding axe

Two popular outdoor education centres, set among some of the North of England’s most stunning scenery and enjoyed by young people for many years, are among the schemes to be closed as budgets are scaled back.

In the final part of our series assessing the impact the £1bn cuts to local services imposed by the Government are now having upon the region, the Yorkshire Post today reveals some of the people being directly affected.

In North Yorkshire, where the council has tightened rules governing which young people qualify for school buses, twins Samuel and Gregory Nickerson have been told they are no longer eligible for passes – even though their walk to the Rossett School in Harrogate takes more than an hour in each direction across unlit moorland.

The council does not have to provide free bus passes to children who live less than three miles away – and after recalculating the Nickersons’ possible route, it said the journey could be done in 2.92 miles.

Father Frank Nickerson said: “We appealed at County Hall and they told we had a good case – but when I phoned up they said it had failed. It seems very unfair.”

Youth workers, too, are finding their projects being scaled back or cut altogether. Earlier this month the Yorkshire Post reported concerns raised by the chief constable of Humberside Police, Tim Hollis, that cuts to councils’ youth service budgets could lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour further down the line.

“You cannot get away from it,” Mr Hollis said. “In four or five years’ time, the cumulative impact of these cuts could be quite negative.”

Youth workers on the ground are now making it clear that funding for long-running schemes is starting to dry up.

Elizabeth Hellmich, who runs the Safe project in Heaton, Bradford, said: “We are just coming to the end of some funding, and I’ve had people asking me if we can go out and talk with some groups of boys about anti-social behaviour and that sort of thing – but I am just not able to pull the money in.

“Previously the money has been there from the council’s area committees or from the police but the whole thing is just drying up.

“Sadly, the message is now cascading down to young people. You tell them there’s a project you want to do, and they just ask what the point is – they know it will just have to stop again anyway.

“The knock-on effect is going to be horrendous. Kids are not going to get the information they need to be better citizens – kids will set off down the wrong track who just did not need to.”

Long-cherished facilities, too, are closing.

North Yorkshire County Council has announced it is withdrawing its £1m-a-year subsidy for its outdoor education service. As a result, centres at Greatfryupdale on the North York Moors and the Humphrey Head Centre near Grange-over-Sands are to close.

Schools from across the county have agreed to contribute money from their own budgets to keep open the area’s other two centres at Pateley Bridge and at East Barnby.

County councillor John Watson, the executive member for schools, said the decision had been “very tough” but that he was pleased the schools’ contributions had meant the service will still continue.

As in other service areas, some of the most controversial cuts to youth schemes have been reversed by new council leaders elected in May’s local elections.

In Hull, where Labour took control of the city council from the Liberal Democrats in May, new leader Steve Brady said his budget changes have seen £1.6m poured back into children’s services that would otherwise have been cut.

“The previous administration were just getting it wrong,” he said. “They were making massive cuts to children’s and youth services.

“The Connexions service, for example, was going to be totally decimated. There would have been no advice for young people looking to get into work, and so we’ve put money back into saving that service.”

Public sector staff lose jobs

THOUSANDS of public workers have lost their jobs across Yorkshire since April as budget reductions hit both managers and front-line staff.

Harrogate Council yesterday became the latest authority to reveal job cuts, as part if its multi-million-pound move to new premises.

The council is looking at selling off the five main offices it currently occupies and moving into one new site either at Hornbeam Park, Central House, Beckwith Knowle, Pannal, or the current police station site in the town centre.

It has now emerged that as part of the move, jobs will be slashed from its 500-strong office-based workforce. The authority claims a two per cent reduction in staff costs would cover the expense of the move – but leader Don Mackenzie said final numbers have yet to be decided.

“Clearly with any organisation currently spread over five sites which is then brought on to one site, there will be efficiencies in that,” the council leader said. “We can operate with fewer staff.

“The whole move is self-funding – if we can make savings of two per cent in our staff revenues, that is enough to make the whole thing pay for itself.

This is still quite a long way off, it is going to take two to three years. At all stages of the process we will keep our employees informed.”