Monday, October 22, 2007

New Young Mayor of Lewisham

On Thursday I went along to the reception and announcement of the results for the Young Mayor of Lewisham elections. The turnout, at 45%, was significantly above that of local council elections, with some schools such as Addey & Stanhope achieving a turnout of 85%. It was great to see so much enthusiasm from all those involved.

I sat next to the Mum of one of the candidates, who told me she “would be glad when it was all over“ so her son could “get back to revising for his GCSEs” which he was taking in a month. When her son, Jason, then went on to win (by a significant margin, considering there were 18 candidates), she was of course delighted and very proud!

Congratulations to new Young Mayor Jason Cole, who is a pupil at Crofton School, and Deputy Young Mayor Naz Ramadan, from Sydenham School. Justin ran on a manifesto which promised to make today’s adults and leaders listen to young people’s concerns and commit to dealing with the issues closest to their hearts. Over the next year Jason will work with his team of Young Advisors and has a £25,000 budget to spend on youth-orientated schemes. (and he won’t be put under undue pressure to do stuff when he has his exams coming up!).

2 comments:

Amina said...
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Anonymous said...

Sorry Amina - could I ask you to rephrase your comment focussing on what you felt the flaws in the election were, but leaving out the personal attack on any of the young people who took part? By all means be critical of the rest of us elected representatives, who are over 18! Thanks.