Threat to the Sweatbox

Today Jenny and I met three young people from the Sweatbox Union Youth Forum at County Hall who were speaking at the Childrens' Services Scrutiny Committee. This is because of the proposed cuts in youth work funding, which the Conservative controlled County Council is considering as part of its budget setting exercise.

Scrutiny committees are currently meeting to discuss where savings can be made and committee members can contribute to the debate. The budget will be set at the full council meeting in February next year.

The young people made an excellent presentation to the committee and were given a round of applause. The members round the table seemed suitably impressed and certainly did appear to have been convinced of what a valuable asset our youth centres are. I also spoke at the committee arguing the case that the Sweatbox is one of the few facilities which we have in our area and serves a huge population from Grove, Wantage and the surrounding villages. My email box is becoming full of concerns on this matter since the campaign to save the Sweatbox was launched in Wantage at the Dickensian evening. If you would like to support their campaign, then do email occ.feedback@oxfordshire.gov.uk and copy in myself at zoe.patrick@oxfordshire.gov.uk or you can respond to the comments on this blog.