YOUTH group protesters say councillors cannot ignore the huge swell of opposition to cuts planned at this week’s budget meeting.

Campaigners fighting to stop planned cuts slashing 70 per cent of the youth services budget warn youngsters will have nowhere to go if youth centres are forced to close.

The warning comes as a public consultation into the plans saw a response from almost 1,200 young people most affected.

A decision will be made at Brighton and Hove City Council’s budget meeting on Thursday with protesters hopeful rescue plans drawn up by Greens and Conservatives will be successful.

In response to the vociferous campaign launched after the cuts were unveiled in November, the council has agreed to reduce the cut of £800,000 from a £1 million budget to £700,000.

But youth service bosses say this will only preserve groups for another three months, not long enough to draw-up a sustainable future, and will mean £100,000 being lost from other children’s services.

After a march of around 400 campaigners last month, a petition with almost 2,000 signatures and numerous questions at council meetings, campaigners are now urging residents to email councillors calling on them not to support the cuts.

One city councillor has reportedly received more than 450 emails on the subject already.

The latest stage of the campaign was held on Saturday at The Level as youngsters and youth service leaders explained to residents what was at stake on Thursday.

Among them was 16-year-old Bette Davies who attends Brighton Youth Centre several times a week.

She said: “If I can’t go to the youth centre then I will just go down to The Level at night where there can be a lot of trouble.

“I don’t want to end up like that but sometimes you get involved in things.

“Considering the amount of people that have protested against the cuts, they really shouldn’t be agreed.”

Kate Barker of Impact Initiatives said: “It’s really amazing to see the level of involvement young people have had in this from all different areas of the city.

“We had nearly 400 on the march, that was a young person who set that up, and they have been at every single council meeting they can, asking questions.”

Helen Bartlett from the Hangleton and Knoll Project said: “It’s really heartening how the city has come together to support young people.

“We hope now the councillors will listen to us and the young people of the city.”

The Labour administration say they are reluctantly proposing the cuts because of the huge reductions to their funding from central Government.

‘I’LL BE STUCK AT HOME AND I WON’T SEE ANYONE EVER’

I’ll be stuck at home and I won’t see anyone ever. I won’t be somewhere I feel OK. I won’t get any support.”

Those are the words of just one of the hundreds of teenagers worried what will happen if councillors agree to slash youth services.

The anonymous quote from the council’s last-minute consultation on the cuts shows how much these threatened services are cherished.

Youngsters told the consultation, which ended last week, that services offered an alternative to getting into trouble, vandalism, fights, drugs, alcohol and underage sex.

The youngsters also backed up what councillors and youth service leaders have been saying for weeks – by cutting preventative services, the council will be storing up problems for the future. Problems with much more expensive solutions.

Youngsters said the cuts would lead to an increase in crime, the loss of safe places to go and jeopardise mental health.

Youngsters said services gave them confidence, emotional support and helped them with issues around sexuality, bullying, drugs and anger management.

One in three of teenagers said they did not know where they would go if the youth services were lost, while a similar proportion said there was nowhere else to go.

A third said counsellors, GPs, and social workers could not offer the same level of support if youth services were to go.

A group of 76 vulnerable young people aged between 11 and 24 attended a specially-arranged focus group. They were either homeless, were suffering domestic violence at home, were from minority backgrounds, were bullied at school or had special educational needs. They said youth services helped them feel safe, helped their employability, built up their self-confidence and allowed them to talk about their problems.

The council’s reduced £300,000 budget will provide for services they are legally bound to provide.

In-house services that would go include the youth information bus; one-to-one and group work helping with self-esteem, anger management and risk taking; the Youth Arts Award and Duke of Edinburgh scheme for youngsters with special educational needs and disabilities.

The cuts will also put at risk the futures of eight youth charities and groups in the city that make up the youth collective. Those that survive will only be able to offer a fraction of what they do now unless alternative funding can be found.

The council itself is very aware of the damage likely to be wreaked by the cuts. Its own equality impact assessment puts the level of impact at five – its highest level.

Officers warn young disabled people could be “disproportionately affected”, black and minority youngsters will find it harder to access services, the situation for young trans people, already more likely to suffer from social isolation, exclusion and bullying, could get worse while low income families will have fewer options.

In response, the council will improve the promotion of available services for young people and assist in identifying alternative funding.

Adam Muirhead, project manager for the Trust for Developing Communities, said: “Councillors need to hear these voices that don’t get heard on polling day. The message is loud and clear from Brighton and Hove’s young people. If the decision doesn’t go the way we hope on Thursday, I expect first thing Friday morning young people will be finding new ways to campaign.

“This won’t blow out the candle, it will blow up the bonfire.”

PROJECT’S FUNDRAISER BID

YOUTH groups and charities have had to move fast to try and secure their futures after the “bolt out the blue” proposal to remove their funding in November.

One of those groups affected, the Hangleton and Knoll Project, has launched a two month crowdfunding bid to raise £10,000.

The charity says the money is needed to maintain “vital support services” it has been providing for youngsters aged between eight and 19 years of age in Hove for more than 30 years.

The charity was singled out for praise by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012 when he gave it a Big Society Award.

Among the services it currently runs include a young women group, a youth leaders and youth health champions group, a youth drop-in, a participation night with intergenerational community events and a “detached” youth work night when staff meet young people on the streets and in parks to offer support and guidance on sexual health, substance misue and family and school-related issues.

The proposed cuts have left the project facing a massive challenge to maintain its current services to those in society that often have no other place to go.

The project is currently working with up to 70 young people a week often in crisis and in grave need of support but the charity is in in danger of losing two key staff with further staff reductions possible.

Hangleton and Knoll Project bosses are looking into every other avenue of obtaining alternative long-term and sustainable funding through Comic Relief, The Big Lottery and other local trusts.

But they are hoping residents will also dip into their pockets to help them to continue to provide vital support to the young people of Hangleton and Knoll and surrounding areas.

If the group hits its fundraising target, it will be able to maintain the current level of staffing.

To donate, visit crowdfunder.co.uk/hangleton-knoll-project.