Hopes for a youth council to be operating in Llandrindod Wells by the autumn

There are hopes that a youth council for Llandrindod Wells could be up and running by October.

Llandrindod Wells Mayor Councillor Steve Deeks-D'Silva came up with the idea of setting up a youth council after seeing the number and calibre of young people he interviewed to be Mayor's Cadet.

Members were originally told that there were two options for youth councils – either the council could appoint two youth members to sit on the full council or they could develop a youth council of 12 to 16 year-olds.

The idea of the youth council is that it would allow youngsters to have a voice and to bring their ideas to the full adult council of the town.

Members agreed that they would explore setting up a separate youth council made up of members from different age groups and a task and finish group was set up to take the idea forward.

At July's town council meeting, Councillor Deeks-D'Silva said he had spoken to a youth worker and local youth groups such as the cadets and scouts as well as the high school. He said there is quite a number of youngsters being home-schooled and they want to try and reach them through groups.

He said the maximum age should be 16 as sometimes after that they go to college and their attendance may be tricky.

He said: “I was thinking of nine members but maybe we will have 11 or 12 members because there is so much interest. I will call another meeting of the task and finish group and we will make arrangements to go and visit the various youth groups and we will work out how we get them together, whether they have an election within their groups or whether we have elections for them. We will look into it.

“But it is all moving on and I am hoping we will have flesh on the bones by the end of the school holidays and it will be up and running by the end of September or October.”

Councillor Deeks-D'Silva said they are looking for proactive young people that have an opinion and want to see the town flourish.

“It is easy for us at our age to think that we know what young people want but we really do not,” he added

Members noted the update.