A meeting of the council’s health and wellbeing board heard a video appeal from two local young people who complained they had “nowhere to go”, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
Young people in Barking and Dagenham need somewhere to “just be”, councillors and health leaders have been told.
Twenty-year-old Scarlett and 19-year-old Micah made an appeal for free “third spaces” – public places to socialise and relax – at a council meeting yesterday (Tuesday 29th).
Scarlett said teenagers needed places where they could “exist” without having to spend money or being moved on.
She said: “When I was in school there was really nowhere for me and my friends to go.
“After school we might sit in the canteen for a while, or go to the park – maybe the library where we had to keep our voices down, a café where we would have to buy something if we wanted to stay, [or] a chicken shop on the high street.”
Scarlett added that she and her friends would walk “all over Dagenham just talking” or sit on a roadside bench for hours.
She asked: “Is that really the safest place young people should have to go just to socialise?
“We weren’t doing anything wrong. We just wanted somewhere to exist – somewhere we could sit, talk, laugh, be loud, be ourselves without constantly feeling like we were in the way, or someone was going to tell us to leave.”
Micah also said that young people were “constantly being moved on” and that they need somewhere they can “just be” without having to spend money.
However, he added these places should also be open to others.
Micah said: “It’s for families with young children, for older people, for people from different cultures and different generations.
“We need investment, we need funding to keep these spaces open, accessible and affordable.”
Scarlett and Micah made their appeal in a video to a meeting of the council’s health and wellbeing board yesterday.
Responding to the video, Labour councillor Jane Jones said their challenge was “valid”.
She said some parts of Barking and Dagenham had more places for young people to go than others.
Cllr Jones said: “There are things out there to be found but are they all over the borough? No they’re not.
“What have we got in the south of the borough for young people as a space to go to?
Labour councillor Maureen Worby said the council should “listen” to the young people who needed space without having to join a club or activity.
Cllr Worby said: “Not all of our young people want to go to something as organised as the Youth Zone.
“They want to work towards creating a space where they can meet, not what we organise for them. That’s the challenge.”
