Over 19? Council says you are Not Young Any More!

When Liberal Democrat councillors in Epsom and Ewell asked the borough council to separate out the views of young people aged 18 to 34 in their Residents' Survey, they were surprised to be told at the Leisure Committee on 27th October that "young people are generally considered as 11-19 year olds".

The RA led council places great store on satisfaction levels taken from the findings of its annual surveys, and itself acknowledges that "older people are more interested in and thus more likely to sign up for surveys". The Lib Dems contend that the findings do not properly represent the views of younger people and wanted the 18-34 age group's views reported separately, because they were under-represented in the final analysis. Cllrs Jonathan Lees and Christine Key sit on the council's Leisure Committee and Cllr Lees has spent time canvassing the views of young people at university in Epsom.

Cllr Christine Key (College) said "It was very disappointing to be given information which on the face of it seems to ignore that the 20-34 age group even exists! We were told that the survey information was old and wouldn't be meaningful, yet only three months ago the council issued a press release based on its findings. Later on, it was stated that it was impossible to analyse the opinions of any particular age group anyway, because of a technical problem."

Lib Dems on the council have been concerned for some years that the views of young people, whether teenagers or young adults, are not to the forefront of council decision making. It seems we shall have to wait until the next Residents' Survey in 2009 to find out how satisfied, or dissatisfied, younger adults are with council services.