Polly has reacted with shock at a statement issued by Kent County Council asserting that Ramsgate Youth Centre “is no longer required”.

The MP is campaigning to save the youth centre, which is facing being closed and sold off by Conservative-controlled Kent County Council.

She is supporting a bid by Pie Factory Music, a youth charity based in the centre, to buy the building from the council, so it can continue to operate youth services there.

The charity – one of the last remaining safe havens for young people in Ramsgate – provides a space in Thanet where young people can access opportunities through youth work, music and arts projects, pastoral care, and counselling.

Polly, who recently raised the issue in the House of Commons, said the council was either dishonest or deluded about the urgent need for ongoing youth services in Ramsgate, which suffers with some of the worst poverty and crime rates in Kent.

She said:

Community youth services like Pie Factory Music provide a lifeline to vulnerable young people, offering them a safe space to socialise, express themselves, and receive vital help and support.

 

Yet such services have been cut to the bone across Kent thanks to fourteen years of Tory austerity, with the predictable result being rising homelessness, knife crime, and antisocial behaviour.

 

Yet instead of boosting youth services to tackle these urgent problems, Kent County Council is proposing to flog off the Ramsgate Youth Centre and throw Pie Factory Music out on the street. It is like they have learned nothing from the past fourteen years.  

Maybe the Council is being dishonest with the public about the impact this decision will have on Ramsgate, or maybe they are simply deluded about the problems facing our community, which this decision will undoubtedly worsen.

 

Either way, it is not too late for them to listen to local residents and ensure the continuation of youth services from Ramsgate Youth Centre, and I would urge them immediately to do so.