CLLR CHRIS CLARANCE, of Marine Parade, Teignmouth, writes:In a recent issue of your paper, as county councillors for Teignmouth and the Teign Estuary, we were publicly challenged to respond over the issue of not continuing to fund anymore the Youth Intervention Programme (YIP), in Teignmouth. This programme was funded by the previous Liberal Democrat administration to the tune of £200,000 for 18 months, ending on March 31.The Devon Youth Service spends on average £70 per head per annum on people aged between 13 and 25, providing value for money in the excellent work they do. Unfortunately, there are those in society who need more help; the police, the community support officers, the youth offending team and the anti-social behaviour team, all four having a valuable role to play. So, the decision of the new administration was not to continue with any funding of a fifth organisation, the Youth Intervention Programme, which simply didn't warrant the funding levels of £3,508 per head per annum of the average 38 people under its wing. This extraordinarily high expenditure, in view of the other four organisations that continue to do outstanding work, simply could not be justified.As two Conservative Devon County councillors, James McMurray and myself, have identified there is a desperate need in Teignmouth for the Devon Youth Service to provide a decent building, fit-for-purpose, in Teignmouth so that the young people in Teignmouth can have the same quality of service that the rest of Teignbridge take for granted.It is a shame that previous councillors have not addressed this issue during the many years of a Liberal Democrat administration, but we, as the two local Conservative county council members, see the need to lobby the cabinet on the situation we now find ourselves in, where quite clearly a new, fit-for-purpose, building is needed in Teignmouth.Currently provisions are fragmented. The centres of Kingsway and Eastcliff are under the Kingsway Meadow Association and the Ice Factory in the town.In the last five or six years, the Kingsway Meadow Association has received more than £2million from various public bodies in funding.Surely the time has come to address the long-term issues for the young, rather than the short-term fixes that have cost a lot of money, which has resolved nothing as regard to the young people having somewhere to go which is fit for purpose.

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