LID DEM LEADER MEETING MAD (Cheltenham Liberal Democrats)

Cheltenham Liberal Democrats <info@cheltlibdems.org.uk>

LID DEM LEADER MEETING MAD

April 11, 2008 1:10 PM

LIB DEM LEADER Nick Clegg is visiting Cheltenham on Monday and will be meeting young people involved in the MAD (Make a Difference) youth council to listen to their points of view. MAD was established in 1998 to 'represent the views of young people across the town'. For ten years it has raised issues important to young people with decision-makers at local and national level. One issue likely to be raised this time is the Conservative Borough Council's £25,000 cut in youth council funding which has led to the loss this week of their youth engagement worker. This is expected to severely hamper MAD's activities.

Nick will arrive by train at Cheltenham Spa station - where services have been under threat from controversial plans for a new Parkway station. He will also be visiting flood victims in Warden Hill and a site uphill at Leckhampton where new housing is being forced into the countryside and is likely to make flooding worse. He will be speaking later at the University of Gloucestershire's beautiful Park campus. Local MP Martin Horwood will then be taking Nick for a first class Cheltenham meal at Spice Lodge in Bath Road.

NICK CLEGG WILL BE MEETING REPRESENTATIVES OF MAD AT 1650hrs AT GROSVENOR HALL, GROSVENOR STREET, CHELTENHAM GL52 2SG.

Martin Horwood commented: 'I'm delighted that Nick is visiting Cheltenham and in particular that he'll be listening to the views of young people. It's likely that Tory cuts to the youth council and to housing and homelessness advice services in the town will be an issue in the forthcoming local elections. And rightly so. These are services and organisations that many people in Cheltenham won't have to use. They are aimed at some of the least powerful people in the community and give them support and the opportunity to have their voices heard. It is a measure of the Tory council's approach that they were willing to make these cuts."