Facilities For The Youth

fig. 10 – Demand for sporting/recreational
youth facilities in the parish

Having established what is currently available, we went on to ask what they would like to do if they could. Fig. 10 and fig. 11 show the results.

Tennis, netball, hockey, cricket, table-tennis and boxing all appear to have a much higher potential for support than is currently attended. Similarly it appears that an internet café and a scout/guide group would be well supported too. Football still scores well here, but the previous graph indicates that many of those that want to play football already do so.

Again, the fact that some people already play these sports, but many more would like to do so, comes back to a matter of public transport as well as facilities. It would be unlikely that Parson Drove could supply all of the above within the parish, so we must look to public transport to allow those that wish to do so, to participate in their sports in the surrounding area. This was a point made strongly in the youth survey, both in the results and in the comments made.

With regard to facilities for the youth, we asked if there was anything else that they would like to see in the village?

It should be noted that the idea of an all-weather surface was only raised at the meeting and not mentioned in the original survey. However, everyone present was in favour of it.

fig. 11 – Additional facilities that the
youth would like to have

The prospect of restarting the village youth club was raised as a separate question. 57% would be in favour of a youth club in the village, run in association with County Detached Youth workers. The youngsters would have a large say in how the club was run and the youth workers would assist with the running, alongside parent volunteers. This would hopefully avoid the problem with a lack of volunteers that caused the former youth club to fold. The County Detached Youth workers attended the meeting that we held for the youngsters and outlined how it would work. All those present seemed very enthusiastic towards the idea. A follow-up meeting is scheduled for mid-April 2005.

Finally, the respondents were given the opportunity to comment on any other issues. Again the poor bus service was highlighted, as was the problem of vandalism in the village. The lack of things to do was mentioned, but hopefully the parish plan will go some way towards alleviating some of these issues.

Points To Take Forward

• Support for many sporting activities, both inside and outside the parish
• Transport issues need to be examined, if the facilities outside the parish are to be used to their full potential
• Facilities such as an internet café, skateboard park or all-weather surface in the parish are popular
• Restarting the youth club has good support