Let's not forget the youngsters!

Written by Ian Galloway and published in West Somerset Free Press on Fri 25th Apr 2008

Dear Editor,

It was good to see the District Council at their meeting last Thursday and to read in the Free Press on Friday of the efforts district councillors are making to tackle the debts and commitments that the council inherited. Like most families in the country right now, they have to make a judgement about what they want and what they can afford. Responsible local government is at last beginning to raise its weary head in West Somerset.

For me at least, a major disappointment is that within all the discussions surrounding Vulcan Road and the land swaps that form a part of the New Horizons development, the loss of the children's BMX track on Vulcan Road scarcely rates a passing mention in the greater vision. I walk my dog alongside it every afternoon and it is almost always in use; especially now with the lighter evenings and during school holidays.

One cannot help but feel that were we a younger society with a town and district council that actively had young peoples' needs at the forefront of its policy making, the loss of the only dedicated BMX track within Minehead would have never been allowed to occur without loud protest. We live in a town that remains a virtual desert in terms of facilities for young people. The BMX track is a town resource that young people actually choose to play on and a rare opportunity for energetic, unsupervised and exciting play in the open air. It is being taken from them and is not being replaced. The proposed leisure centre is great but it won't be a place for young people of a certain age to gossip, hang around, show off and from time to time ride like fury. A whole generation of children have grown up on promises of 'jam tomorrow' yet still the nearest they get to a Skate Board Park are the benches on the esplanade. Watchet is putting us all to shame.

I suppose the above would be seen as a 'single issue' and nowadays single issue pressure groups tend to be spoken of in disparaging terms by politicians; as groups that one should not be 'unduly swayed by'. At its worst this means pressing on regardless. This is because they make life uncomfortable for local politicians like my self. We may easily persuade ourselves that they are an illegitimate expression of the common good. This is to confuse them with lobby groups seeking to gain a self interested special advantage at the expense of everybody else. In fact, as has happened in West Somerset in the past, single issue groups are the result of a council failing to consult widely on key issues or only consulting favoured 'stakeholders'. The end result is that the public may neither own nor support their council's plans. Single issue groups gave women the vote and slaves their freedom.

I wish single issue groups a long and active life but most of all I wish we could provide a permanent BMX track and Skateboard Park for the young people of Minehead. God knows they have waited long enough for it.

Ian Galloway

C/Cllr. Minehead