Uproar at youth facilities meeting

Wednesday afternoon's meeting at the Leisure Centre had been called by Hillside Road and London Road Residents' Association to discuss the lack of facilities for young people and was chaired by Rother sports development officer Adrian Gaylon.

But with the unfinished skatepark only yards away from the hall it was inevitable that one issue would predominate.

Young people invited in to give their views made up more than 50 per cent of the attendance.

Factions swiftly became apparent.

Skateboarders were accusing BMX riders of commandeering their skatepark. BMXrs from Bexhill claimed Sidley youngsters don't allow them on the newly-refurbished BMX track at Sidley.

The Youth Service was asking what it was that young people wanted and wondering why so few attended the events they arrange.

The young people were arguing that they were never informed.

After telling of the weekend's destruction, High School bursar Chris Grant left the meeting when it became clear that the skatepark would not be closed while a planned security fence and CCTV cameras were installed..

And mothers were complaining that the cost of damage repairs would inevitably come out of their children's education.

Rother leader Cllr Graham Gubby said that contractors had been due to deliver security fencing before the skatepark equipment was installed.

But to have re-scheduled the installation of the ramps until the fencing delay had been rectified would have cost money that had not been budgeted.

Vowing that he would not "give up" on young people and their needs, Cllr Gubby, endeavouring to make himself heard over the hubbub, told youngsters: "Some of you are giving the vast majority of young people a really bad name."

After telling a youth to get his dirty feet off a chair, he added: "The vast majority of young people in this town are really good kids. But you have to help yourselves."

He appealed for the town's young people to self-police facilities like the skate park - not by giving interlopers a bloody nose but by organising themselves so that skateboarders and BMXrs each had a share and youngsters from all parts of the town could use the equipment.

John Izzard of Bexhill Young People's Services told of a five-year struggle to get funding for the skatepark. Jaws dropped when he asked the meeting to guess what it had cost.

"Bids" started at 5,000.

The skatepark has cost 75,000, funded through grants from Rother and other organisations but principally from landfill tax from BIFFA.

Cllr Gubby said that High School damage could amount to "tens of thousands of pounds" - most of it in one night of destruction.

He told the meeting: "There are some of you - not necessarily those here - who are destroying what other people have worked to provide for you."

There were blank faces when Cllr Gubby mentioned next month's Heaven Can Wait project at the De La Warr Pavilion, a floor-to-ceiling art scheme.

Among productive ideas to emerge from the meeting was a network of public noticeboards so the youth service and other providers could inform young people of activities being provided.

Another was a call by residents' association chairman Bev Winchester for a youth residents' association.

She also called for a community centre to serve that area of town.

John Izzard told her of the work he had been doing in a bid to secure the area next to the Leisure Centre for community use.

But he warned that achieving the skatepark had taken 4-5 years. A community centre could cost millions.