Stating the obvious

May 15 2008 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

THE other week I made some comments about the odd language our councils use when they talk about the blindingly obvious.

My pleas for a little bit of sense seem to have fallen on deaf ears in Middlesbrough. A nice, neat, green Executive Document came my way the other day. Published by the council’s Community Safety and Leisure Scrutiny Panel, its title is: “A response to teenagers hanging about”.

It said: “The Panel was informed that following a BVPI survey, another neighbourhood survey had linked teenagers hanging about with the Respect agenda in tackling anti-social behaviour where indications were that parents were not taking responsibility for the actions of their children.” Pardon?

It had detailed terms of reference, involved meetings of a full scrutiny panel, dragged in the council’s auditors and took evidence from a wide range of eminent people. Among these were staff from the council’s Corporate Policy section, the Audit Commission, a chief inspector from Cleveland Police, sports managers and the University of Teesside.

Missing, amazingly, were any actual teenagers from the town. If they had been given their say, they might have helped the councillors come a lot quicker to the conclusion that teenagers hang around for what council officers call “social interaction” - or what I might have called “getting to see your mates”. They might also have saved the council, assorted university academics and the police a good deal of valuable time in coming to their final considered conclusion that most teenagers are not involved in crime.

Hanging around is centuries old. In my day it was outside the chip shop. Now it’s outside a McDonald’s. It’s where kids learn to socialise. Sure they can be loud, but do we really want to see our kids become an obedient army of docile sheep ?

They are entitled to kick against the adult world; and such generational tensions can be creative, dynamic and fun. But the council view that all these problems can be solved by trying to shoehorn youngsters into rigid schemes evades the issue. Kids just want to have fun, and we should simply allow that to happen.

- Park Bencher