Whanganui Youth Council scrapped as rates pressure rises

Whanganui Youth Council co-chair Holly Davies. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui’s Youth Council has been scrapped, a decision that brought its members to tears.

The move is part of $1.5 million in savings the district council has made to offset rates, with others including reducing budgets for trees, shrubs and annuals, buying fewer new library books and reducing the maintenance of premier parks.

Doing away with the Youth Council will save $51,000 per year.

Youth Council co-chair Holly Davies said members were told the news at a closed-door meeting in February.

It had to be kept private until the council’s long-term plan (LTP) consultation document was finalised.

That document has now been released, with no option for retaining the Youth Council included.

Davies, who joined the council in 2021, said she was angry because it was “that in-between spot” between rangatahi in the community and council.

“It’s a wonderful position, a wonderful opportunity and we need that,” she said.

“We are trying not to lose hope. I’ve already finished my submission (to the LTP) but we are pretty heartbroken by the fact that we had no say in the process.”

She said they had been without a project support officer for over a year, with the role falling onto other council staff.

There are currently eight people on the council.

“We were planning a recruitment drive - going to schools and high schools - but now there isn’t much point,” Davies said.

“What do we say? ‘Hi and welcome, but also, we’re getting scrapped in a month’.”

Youth councillor Lola Fisher said Charlotte Melser, the council appointee on the Youth Council, had broken the news to them.

“A lot of people cried, it was a very emotional announcement,” Fisher said.

“Some of us have been on the council for years and have made friends. It’s like our family now.”

She said she understood the need to find savings but cutting the Youth Council was “a pretty drastic decision”.

“I’m sure if [council] had met with us beforehand, explained the situation and asked for ideas, we could have thrown 10 at them.”

Charlotte Melser (third from left) with members of the Youth Council at this year's Relay for Life.

Recent Youth Council work included consulting with Youth Services Trust, now Whatever, she said.

“They came to us with ideas about how they could make their rebrand as successful as possible and we helped them with planning of their launch event,” Fisher said.

“A lot of organisations come to us with ideas. We are almost like a consultation agency sometimes. That’s great though, because you need that youth voice heard.”

She said they also worked on the council’s $600ships scholarship programme, organised and promoted events and entered a team in the Relay for Life event at Cooks Gardens.

Whanganui mayor Andrew Tripe said he had introduced a portfolio structure for elected members.

“There will be 1o to 12 portfolios and one of them is youth,” he said.

“We want to continue to focus on our youth - making sure we’re both listening and responding to their needs, now and in the future.

“A dedicated councillor will hold that portfolio and we are looking to get some really great engagement with our rangatahi and tamariki from all walks of life.”

He said as a whole, he envisaged council being out in the community in a less structured way, rather than sitting around the council table.

“We need to sit around the table to make decisions - no problem with that - but we need to connect more with our community to understand their needs, their wants, their issues and their opportunities.

“I think we can be more effective in our engagement.”

Outside of Melser and Josh Chandulal-Mackay, there had been very little engagement with this term’s elected members, Fisher said.

She said the first time they formally met Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe was 30 minutes before they were told of the Youth Council’s disestablishment.

“He came in and talked about the importance of the youth voice, then 30 minutes later we find out we’ve been cut. It didn’t really make a lot of sense.”

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe. Photo / Bevan Conley

Tripe said that was the first invite he had received from the Youth Council and he was very happy to accept it.

“It is what it is. I’m busy, they’re busy and the timing is not always there. It’s certainly not a measure of their performance at all,” he said.

“I think they’ve done a great job but we just want a wider reach and a more informal structure.”

Chandulal-Mackay said the Youth Council was an opportunity for young people to understand local government and to be involved in the delivery of events.

It also had an advocacy function, he said.

“For various reasons - Covid-19, lack of staffing resources and so on, the Youth Council has been struggling over the last couple of years.

“From my perspective, this next 12-month period is an opportunity for us to reset and think about what we want the investment in youth engagement to look like.”

Melser will have the council’s youth portfolio.

She had “fought tooth and nail” to retain a budget line to investigate alternative options for youth engagement and initiatives.

That amounted to $10,000.

“During my term, I don’t think they [Youth Council] have had an opportunity to thrive,” Melser said.

“For them to thrive and shine, some pretty significant investment and resources were needed. Obviously, it went the other way.

“However, I am optimistic about finding an alternative model. Council has a moral and civic obligation to provide opportunities to our rangatahi.”

Chandulal-Mackay joined the youth council in 2007 at the age of 12.

It is open to those aged 12 to 24.

“When I joined, there were two councillors on it - Nicki Higgie and Marty Lindsey,” he said.

“To a 12-year-old, having a councillor sitting next to you is like having the Prime Minister sitting next to you.

“It’s a direct link to people that are actively making a difference in the community. To have them as a sounding board was brilliant in terms of understanding the function of local government.”

Davies said the public should be consulted on the Youth Council’s future and, in her opinion, it was ridiculous it wouldn’t be.

“Everyone works or interacts with young people in some way.

‘We are a town of young people, in a country of young people who are being failed by politics at the moment.”

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.