April 2024
My letter to you:
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Dear all,
On the 21st of March, the British Youth Council announced its closure after more than 75 years of service to the young people of this country. For those of you who are unaware, the British Youth Council ran a great many schemes, most notably Youth Parliament. After collaboration with some councillors at Cheltenham Borough Council, we have devised a scheme whereby local councils would pledge money in order to support the British Youth Council or whatever follows from it. More information about this and how to express your support for this can be found at the link at the bottom of this email . Please sign the petition – it means a lot and would allow for a better youth service in future.
Additionally, I have been collaborating with the other MYPs for Gloucestershire in order to try to set up a youth council in the area. This would be a council whereby young people could apply to participate or be elected and which would represent more youth in Gloucestershire than the MYPs alone could ever hope to do, along with proper representation on a county council level. After local elections are out of the way and all results declared, we hope to talk with the Gloucestershire County Council and plan to have set up a provisional youth council before the next set of elections in February 2026, with the first set of elections taking place alongside the Youth Parliament elections then.
Unfortunately, given the local elections and the closure of the BYC, I have had little time to talk to local councillors about my proposals for public transport and have only managed to have short introductory meetings with Alex Chalk KC MP and Laurence Robertson MP. I apologise for this as I understand it was a key campaign point and hope to update you on this at another point.
Thank you for your support,
Chris Johnson
What I've been doing
Here you can see a short summary of all my meetings and events. This does not include administrative meetings that I have to attend as MYP.
Talking with Alex Chalk
On the 5th April, I had the opportunity to talk with Alex Chalk KC MP for Cheltenham. We discussed a range of issues affecting youth - from Voter ID to the closure of BYC
Talking with Cllrs Atherstone and Boyes
On the 12th April, I hopped on a call with local councillors Victoria Atherstone and Angie Boyes to discuss public transport and how they could help with this. Overall, a very productive meeting which has led to the petition
Talking with Laurence Robertson
Later on the 12th April, I talked with Laurence Robertson about public transport, the NHS, and the environment and our views on the matter.
Planet Cheltenham
On the 24th April, I went to the Planet Cheltenham Climate Youth Group, where I engaged in a litter pick in the Minster Gardens and looked at an open letter to Cheltenham Borough Council before the local elections.