Page 8 - Town & Around - May 2025

8 Town & Around May 2025 Tel: 01485 540620 email: editor@townandaround.net
January, a step dislodged, and the Borough particularly in deprived areas. is at the top of Mayor, my Motion to the Borough Council
paused the Ferry. Frenetic activity followed, government agenda. A ward in the Core 20% Budget, to replace the West Lynn Ferry
but the Ferry has still not re-opened. most deprived Suspension of a key route to Landing Stage passed unanimously, but the
The residents of West Lynn remain cut off, work, the Ferry, is nothing short of an proof of the pudding …
isolated socially and economically form the economic disaster. I hope by the time I write again, the Ferry
town they are part of. Increasing employment A protest at the West Lynn steps, a will be back on the water.
rates and improving access to the workplaces, presentation of residents’ petition to the
Jo Rust reports on YAB and RISE

always consider myself very fortunate that
I get to meet so many different people and
Igroups, in particular, our young people. I
sit on the local Youth Advisory Board and
attended a meeting with them in mid-April
which was really illuminating, interesting and
informative.
For those of you who aren’t aware of the
work that the YABs do, they’re a body through
which young people, up to the age of 24, can
work through to campaign, lobby and advocate
to bring about the change that they’d like to see.
Our local YAB is for the young people who
live or study in West Norfolk and they work it. It’s a campaign called Everyone Has the just an add on. You can sign up to the pledge
alongside professionals and organisations like Right to Play. It was at least a year ago, but by going to righttoplay@map.uk.net.
our borough council, to make sure that young probably longer (time flies when you’re having As a borough we’re committed to doing
people are able to have their say about the fun!) that the YAB board attended a King’s things better for our young people and they’re
decisions which are made that affect them. A Lynn Area Committee meeting and gave at the heart of many of our strategies, whether
motion was passed at a full council of the councillors in the wards of the unparished area that’s our work around becoming a Marmot
Borough where Cllr Ben Jones proposed to set of King’s Lynn, a presentation about accessible Place, our cultural and heritage strategy or the
up a youth council. Now, working with the play equipment. The presentation gave the work taking place in North Lynn and the Rise
YAB we’re in the process of doing just that. wonderful example of a play area in Torquay Project. Part of the RISE project has been
This will be a vehicle where borough which had been specifically developed to funded by the Community Alcohol Project
councillors will hear directly from young integrate and not merely include, accessible (CAP), which looks to provide education about
people who sit on a variety of different play equipment. Can you imagine turning up the harms of alcohol for teenagers and
organisations, such as the QEH youth council, to a play park and not being able to play the meaningful and engaging activities to stop
the College of West Anglia, young carers and same as your friends, or being unable to push boredom and the drive to drink when you’re
others. We’ll give them information about your child on a swing? Or if there was nothing young. There’s a survey that you can take part
decisions made at scrutiny panels which will available that stimulated your sense of smell or in here too –
go to cabinet and then to full council, which touch. That’s exactly what happened to one of https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8CH7P5L.
they will then have the chance to influence and our local young commissioners and as a result, The Pizza Project, funded by the CAP, has been
to shape. It’s in the very early stages of she started this campaign. It then received a a huge success and is helping to cut anti-social
formation, but I’m optimistic that with the wider launch at Barnham Broom where we behaviour. I was proud to be one of many
input of our youth champion, Cllr Ben Jones, heard from groups including DRAGONS people, young and old(er!), volunteers and the
our brilliant officer team and the young people (disability real action group of Norfolk) who dedicated clean up team, who took part in a
themselves, we’ll have another way in which are an advocacy and participation group of community litter pick in North Lynn in April.
young people can shape their future. young people aged between 13 and 25 with The number of young people who attended and
The meeting that I had in April was really Special Educational Needs and/ or who are got stuck in, over their Easter break, was
uplifting. These young people have the most neuro diverse. All of the groups there were wonderful to see. We all worked together to
amazing ideas, one of which has now turned able to clearly articulate why play areas need make the area that we live, work, or visit, a
into a campaign that’s being taken up to be better designed to take into account the nicer looking place. With the young people we
nationally, and I’m pretty certain that our differences in children and their carers and to have in our community, I think the future is
council got one of the earliest presentations of accommodate them in an integrated way, not bright.