Report for the ACC: 14/12/2023

Anti-Vaping campaign:

We are in the process of writing a petition to restrict attractive packaging and flavours of vapes. We have chosen to do this as, whilst it is illegal for under 18s to vape, many still do. By removing some of the appeal that vaping has for young people we hope that they will not start vaping in the first place, reinforcing the fact that vapes are a tool to help people stop smoking and not just for fun.

We have designed three posters to promote the petition, which we will take to the local and regional media, as well as youth groups and councils country wide to get as many votes as possible.

James (Chair) has had an interview on BBC Radio York about the youth council’s stance on vaping and what is included in the campaign.

It has been suggested within the group that we hold awareness campaigns in schools to raise awareness about the dangers and laws surrounding vaping. NYC staff are currently working on getting appropriate resources to roll out to schools, so it is a possibility that we trial run that. It has also been suggested that we work with Trading Standards as well.

We will be holding a review session of this campaign in the first meeting back after Christmas so we can assess where we are at and how we will proceed.

Keep Skipton Tidy:

The competition in schools and youth groups (encouraging litter picking) is now set up, we are just waiting for our launch date in the February holidays to spread the message.

We have started to storyboard our video raising awareness about the impact of littering.

We did conduct a review of this campaign last month and it has raised several important points about the future direction of this campaign (e.g. It was suggested instead of just reacting to the littering that was taking place via litterpicks, we could be more proactive - contacting businesses and trying to reduce the production/usage of plastic in the first place). We will be doing a mind mapping activity in our first meeting back after Christmas to fully explore our ideas.

Safe space for young people + climbing wall:

Several youth councillors wanted Sandylands to build a climbing wall. As this is happening anyway we will discuss how we want to proceed in a future meeting.

Meetings with Harrogate and Nidderdale YC leadership:

We have held two meetings with HYC and one with NYC leadership to discuss where we are at and attempt to coordinate fundraising efforts. As the Youth Assembly meetings are now going ahead we need to decide if the meetings will continue.

Misc:

- We have done voice recording for NYC and various different surveys (e.g. Let’s Talk Money).

- We have done lots of consultation work, most recently with NYC about sustainability and green projects that could be launched in Skipton.

- Two of our youth councillors have been shortlisted to be an MYP candidate for West North Yorkshire.

- We had representatives at the Youth Convention in Huddersfield University.

- We took part in UK Parliament Week.

In our next meeting we will be holding a by-election for the Vice Chair position and (possibly) a secretary.