MP holds Youth Forum for local school students

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron held a Youth Forum last week, to meet with local school students and get their opinions on both local and national issues.

The event, held at the Connexions centre in Kendal, involved 19 students from across the South Lakes, who met with Tim to discuss the national and local issues that matter to them. The areas of discussion ranged from local issues such as housing and transport, to national topics such as the Alternative Vote campaign and the substitute Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) policy to be announced by Senior Lib Dem Simon Hughes.

The students, from schools across South Lakeland, were able to take part in a 'Football Team' themed Alternative Vote election, as well as drawing up an alternative EMA policy which Tim will present to Simon Hughes next week. This was then followed by an open Q&A session, where students quizzed Tim on areas such as tuition fees and the forestry sell-off.

Commenting after the event, Tim said; "I've held a number of Youth Forums since I was elected as MP in 2005 and enjoy every single one. Friday's Youth Forum was certainly no exception to this and I certainly benefited from meeting local young people who clearly care about our community."

"We covered a range of topics and, as always, I was fascinated by their ideas and comments on both local and national issues. I was particularly interested by the Q&A sessions at the end- we could have kept the discussion going all night! I will take all of their ideas on board and will be passing on their insightful comments to my colleagues in government."