Longridge Town Council are passionate about engaging and empowering the youth of our town to get involved in their community through local democracy to make a difference as volunteers, campaigners and leaders on issues that matter to them and their peers.
Longridge Youth Town Council was born out of this passion. The town council works closely with the youth council to attain a sound understanding of wants, problems and concerns of the youth of the town and we use knowledge to directly inform our decision making.
To give the Youth Council the best understanding and a real flavour of what it is really like to be a local councillor we have modelled the group on the Town Council. The youth council meets monthly, as we do, just before the full council meets. Whilst you don’t have to be elected to be on the youth council as we would like it to be accessible you to as many young people who want to join as possible, an election is held to choose the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The Youth Town Council is delivered independently of the Town Council but very much in partnership with the local charity Longridge Community Action.
The Longridge Youth Town elections took place in May 2022 and the newly elected Youth Mayor and Deputy are:
Mayor: Josh Kirby
Deputy Mayor: Daisy Williams
The Youth Town Council will campaign on the following three key issues:
- Vaping Awareness: To raise awareness about the unknown harms of vaping which has become very prevalent amongst young people over the last few years.
- Access to facilities: To create better access to sports facilities for the purpose of improving peoples physical and mental health.
- Youth Space: To create a safe space for young people where they can socialise and use the internet to complete homework and learn coding.