THE Essex councillor in charge of the youth service budget, Ray Gooding, met with young people, from across Harlow, at Harlow college this afternoon.

The meeting, organised by Harlow MP Robert Halfon, gave young people a chance to air their views on cuts to the youth service to the man in charge of making them. Young people from a variety of groups supported by the youth service including Aspire, Rock School and the Harlow Youth Council, posed questions about why the cuts were needed and what would be done to ensure that the provision of youth service within the town wasn’t lost.

After the meeting Councillor Gooding told Your Harlow how pleased he was to have a chance to meet directly with the young people.

Cllr Gooding said: “We are really pleased with how it wentI felt we really got some good feedback.’

Despite being faced with some tough questions, particularly from youth councillors about the budget cuts, cllr Gooding thanked them for attending.

Cllr Gooding said: “I’d like to say thank you to the young people for coming along and really being so forthright in their views.”