Milford Haven Mayor: Cllr Eric Harries addresses the community, Cllrs Viv and Mike Stoddart sit either side.

THE COUNCIL’s Cabinet has been asked to re-consider its decision to make cuts to the youth services across the county. The chair of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny committee, Cllr Pat Davies, called in the decision that was made by Cabinet in September and her committee discussed the issues on Wednesday (Oct 8). Much of the debate centred on the proposed closure of the community centre in Hubberston and Hakin but concerns were also raised about centres in Neyland, Manorbier and Solva. The head of performance and community, James White, said: “We were required to save £125,000 and this led to a review of open access youth provision. We visited all youth clubs and spoke to young people attending and we spoke to staff as well. We had a set list of questions such as – what’s good about your youth club? What’s not good, if you could go anywhere else would you?

We made a decision sooner rather than later to give us more time to mitigate the impact of the decision.” Cllr Jonathon Nutting said: “It’s slightly worrying that overview and scrutiny is one port of call that isn’t looked at straight away.” James White acknowledged that the issue should have come to the Scrutiny committee. Cllr Guy Woodham said: “Were cabinet fully informed of evidence and information in order for them to make an informed decision? I don’t think so, and I think we should send this back to Cabinet to review this decision.

We have to ensure that the service maintains a county-wide presence. Putting Hakin and Hubberston Youth Club into the same youth club doesn’t take into consideration how local people feel about that. What about the capacity of the Milford Haven centre? You are proposing to relocate people who have a local connection to somewhere where they haven’t got that. There are also concerns from parents that the child would be going further away than normal.” James White responded: “There weren’t any background documents to the report in the week leading up to the Cabinet meeting.

The data around attendance was provided to Cabinet as was information around costs and mapping work. I appreciate there is an element of separate communities. When we looked at mapping, we looked at the addresses of those attending. Roughly one third of those who go to Hubberston live in Milford Haven and one third of people who go to the Milford Haven centre live in Hubberston or Hakin so there is significant crossing between the two youth clubs.The Milford Haven centre will be able to cope, it is the second newest in Wales and it has a wide area which isn’t split into different rooms.

They could easily handle the additional numbers.” Cabinet member Cllr Sue Perkins said: “We were talking about this for some time so it wasn’t something that was new to us but the information should have been in the cabinet papers.” Cllr Reg Owens said: “This is very sad that we are thinking of closing the centre at Hubberston. I have had a very close association with the youth centre and an awful lot of money went in to the development of it. The youth club there was booming. Hubberston Community centre is right in the heart of a densely populated community.

I accuse the authority of making Hubberston second class to Milford Haven Youth Club. It seems they are deliberately running down the youth service in Hubberston. It doesn’t seem to be open when people need it. It just wouldn’t be practical, parents are very wary about their children walking over from Hubberston or Hakin to Milford Haven – that’s going to put a lot of people off. It is obvious that youngsters do mix but this is going to be a sad blow if this centre is going to close. I beg the management team and the Cabinet to really re-think this.

The community centre is part and parcel of that community.” Hubberston Cllr Viv Stoddart endorsed the comments made by Cllr Owens and Cllr Woodham and added: “The proposal to remove youth services will have a huge impact. Out of all the youth centres 3 of 13 will potentially be closed. Hakin and Hubberston is the only one that serves what is classed as a deprived area. The review that went to Cabinet said there was an emphasis on not continuing provision which is well used, cost effective and valued by young people and if you look at the comments from young people who attend Hakin and Hubberston, they do value that youth club.

The centre is extremely well used; it’s used in the morning, afternoons and in a few evenings. The net costs actually represent good value for money for this authority.” “There was a public meeting on Friday and there were around 70 people who attended. There are two rooms in that centre and the lower of those was full. There was a huge range of ages and they were unanimous that they want to keep the hall and they want Pembrokeshire County Council to keep running it and the cost to this authority would be minimal. Of all the centres, Hakin and Hubberston is unique as it is housed in a multi-purpose building.”

Hakin Cllr Mike Stoddart added: “It is completely unfair to budget all the money against the youth service.” Cllr Jonathon Nutting added: “I don’t think you’ve made a very good case at all. It comes over as knee-jerk reaction. I can’t see that there is any thought of bringing in other things. There seems to be no breadth here. You seem to be stuck in one place with one idea. Are there other ways we can bring in provision? I can’t see where we’re thinking outside the box. Is this based on the needs of the child or other things?”

James White said: “We would have to close other services as a result of keeping Hubberston open.” Cllr Wynne Evans commented: “That is coming across as a clear threat.” Cllr Paul Miller, Leader of the Labour Group, addressed the committee and attacked the authorities priorities citing the £17,000 potential saving in Hubberston and £13,000 potential saving in Neyland against the £2m spent at Cherry Grove providing office accommodation and well over £1m spent in Prendergast building yet more offices together with an archive building.

Cllr Miller challenged cabinet to define their priorities asking – ‘was it their priority to empire build with office accommodation in and around county hall or was it, as it should be, to provide real services to real people out in Pembrokeshire communities?’ Cllr Miller went on to say he felt provision for young people in Pembrokeshire was vital and should be right at the bottom of the list of things to be cut. Service Manager for youth services, Steve Davies said: “This was a young person centred approach. We asked ourselves, what’s the least-worst decision we could put forward? We don’t want to be managing retreat. We are looking at developing a model with the youth consortium.”

James White added: “The tendencies may not be as good as they were and we may need to look at ourselves and we may be doing something wrong. We have not been involved in any kind of attempt to run down things since we have become involved. We want to raise the quality right across the service.” Cllr Daphne Bush said: “We have a responsibility to safeguard the needs of all users. Taking that facility away is life changing. We have to think about human beings and I really think a way of working with communities must be found to keep this open.” James White went on to say: “The belief is this is the best we can do with what we’ve been given. These proposals are the most equitable that we can do.” The committee decided that they would refer this back to cabinet where they would be asked to re-consider their decision.

Cllrs came up with four reasons why they wanted the cabinet to reconsider which were:

• There was insufficient information available at the time when Cabinet made its decision.

• New information has come to light since that decision was made, specifically in relation to Hubberston Community Centre and the objects of the charity of which the local authority is a trustee and this should inform the decision in relation to Hubberston Youth Centre.

• The closure of the centre would have a devastating effect on the youth and community that is already suffering from deprivation.

• There hasn’t been enough careful consideration given to finding alternative provision across the board and the wider community. The next meeting of the Cabinet is scheduled for November 3.