Gore District Council youth councillors left their second meeting on Tuesday with plenty of new ideas and concepts to get their heads around.
The GDC youth council was established earlier this year as a forum for the young people of the Gore district to give them a formal voice on issues that concern them.
After 14 youth councillors were sworn in on April 15 by GDC mayor Tracy Hicks, the new youth council had it first formal meeting on Tuesday, May 20.
The young people are guided in their deliberations by GDC Cr Doug Dixey along with council staff, including CEO Steve Parry.
Tuesday's agenda included weighty issues such as vandalism and graffiti in the district, out-of-school care for young people, and developing a vision statement, goals and a strategic plan for the youth council.
The meeting had a different feel to those of senior council meetings, although Gore District Council CEO Steve Parry's attempt to blend in with the younger crowd with his casual attire was somewhat defeated by his clearly adult and conservative views on certain issues, often to the amusement of the young councillors.
With a lighter touch than his more senior representatives on council, youth council chairman Dan Luoni (17) guided the youth council through its agenda, with much of its time spent addressing the issue of vandalism and graffiti in and around the Gore district.
GDC parks and recreation manager Ian Soper said vandalism and graffiti was a major issue for the council at certain times of the year.
‘‘It does appear to be seasonally based with more in summer and a lessening in winter,'' he said.
Mr Soper said the council had a policy to remove graffiti as ‘‘soon as practicable'', after it appeared.
‘‘We did initially allow artful graffiti at the skate park, [on the corner of Mersey and Gorton St] but that has now been defaced and is causing offence to people.
‘‘Council workers will totally clean the skate park of graffiti, for the third time, on Thursday [yesterday],'' Mr Soper said.
GDC roading manger Murray Hasler said vandalism, graffiti and theft of road signs was a major concern and cost.
‘‘We usually end up replacing signs, because it is cheaper than cleaning or repairing them.
‘‘With signs at least $100 each, and up to $500 or more for a big one, it is a large cost to the council,'' Mr Hasler said.
Mr Hasler urged the youth councillors to talk to their peers and remind them not only of the financial costs of damaging or removing signs, but the potential human cost.
The risk of accidents, injuries and even death, especially for people unfamiliar with the roads, was greatly increased if warning signs were missing, painted out or vandalised, Mr Hasler said.
Mr Parry suggested the youth council invite the police to talk to them about those and other ‘‘social behavioural issues'' in Gore.
Mr Soper asked everyone at the meeting to keep an eye on the skate park, once it was cleaned, to see if they could help stop future tagging.
Youth Cr Luoni asked all councillors to go away from the meeting, ‘‘talk to people and come back next meeting with ideas about the skate park, and what we can do as a youth council to assist with this problem''.
He also asked councillors to think long and hard about preparing a vision statement, setting goals and a strategic plan for the youth council.
‘‘We need to let the community know what we are about,'' Mr Luoni said.
GDC councillor Doug Dixey said they needed a one-sentence statement of their vision, three or four achievable goals for the coming year and a plan on how to achieve those goals.
Cr Dixey said the new youth council was going through a learning process, but he felt they would have a ‘‘very positive'' influence in time.
‘‘They will come up with some great ideas for improving the district, I'm sure,'' he said.
