The minister responsible for community cohesion has accused councils of being ‘fuddy-duddy' in the way they deal with teenagers. The comments, by CLG under-secretary Sadiq Khan, were made at a seminar on youth projects funded by the Prince's Trust charity and attended by Prince Charles last week at Clarence House in London. Asked why councils did not do more for young people, the minister said: ‘The fuddy-duddies at councils don't know how important these facilities are. Hanging baskets may be important but football pitches are more important. ‘The cost of not giving these facilities is greater than if they were given, as it's cheaper to get young people involved. But as only 35% of 18 to 24-year-olds vote, why do we think old fuddy-duddies like MPs and councillors listen instead to old people?' Mr Khan, who became a CLG minister last October, added: ‘The frustration we hear around the country is that local authorities don't listen, they're too slow, and we need to make it easier for groups to access the money we give to councils. There are some groups which are professional form-fillers and others which are innovative but not so used to the process. We need to put pressure on local authorities not to give in to the usual suspects.' Seminar speaker, Professor Ted Cantle, chair of the Institute of Community Cohesion and a former council chief executive who led the report into the riots in Oldham, Bradford and Burnley in 2001, said: ‘If you invest in your youth leisure services you get less crime and truancy, and I don't think councils do enough.' Prince's Trust chief executive, Martina Milburn, told The MJ afterwards: ‘My personal view is that the comments were a bit unfair. We have a good relationship with councils and want to be a bridge between them and our client groups.' The seminar included presentations by Prince's Trust youth projects from Dewsbury in Yorkshire, Belfast and Birmingham. Prince Charles told the seminar that the cause of youth crime was lack of self-esteem and added: ‘People who join gangs are crying out for help, and if we can channel their enthusiasm we can achieve far more.'
