Parish Plan Section B5 - Youth Questionnaire
B.5 Youth questionnaire
53. 167 youth questionnaires were returned representing the views of at least 228 people aged from 10 – 18. These are in addition to the views expressed, as part of a household, in the adult questionnaires.
54. The key issues arising, from the young people, are in line with those expressed by the adults. The youth data amplifies these and the full data will be made available to the Action Groups that follow up our recommendations.
55. In particular, young people think that Barrow is a good place to live (78%, Y.3) with the recreation grounds receiving special mention (51% go there to meet friends, 46% use the areas to play games and sports, Y.19). Obviously, they are a valuable facility much appreciated by young people. That said, 39% feel unsafe/intimidated on the playing fields at dusk and after dark (Y.21) - the same applies to the Brook Lane area and the jitties - and complain about gangs of youths who congregate in the playing fields (Y.5) and the smokers and drug users in the parks even at ‘going-home’ time (Y.20). That said, 28% say there is nothing to do for the older age groups (Y.5) and only 5% (Y.4) think the village has some good facilities for young people.
56. We asked explicitly about youth clubs: 143 answered (86%, Y.14), of these
30% want a youth club run by their school
23% want a youth club run by a church
41% want a youth club run independent of school or church.
57. As for organised activities:
51% want a cinema club
42% want a disco
35% want a café club
34% want an art club.
58. 97(62.99%) said that it is not easy to find information about suitable activities/sports taking place in Barrow but note that 25 (17.24%) said that they would be willing to join a group to suggest and help organise events for young people.
59. We have a long list of sports of interest to young people (Y.12 and Y.13) of which tennis (28%) football (22%) and swimming (17%) stand out. There is no facility for tennis in the village. Swimming is available at Humphrey Perkins but that facility is not well regarded (95 claim to be regular swimmers (Y.18) but only 25 say they use Humphrey Perkins, preferring to go to Loughborough, Rawlins and Mountsorrel). The Leisure Centre at Mountsorrel is the place most cited as where young people would like to go by public transport (34%, Y.10). There is no such direct service.
60. 133 (80%) say they use public transport (Y.9), mainly to get to Loughborough, Leicester and Quorn. 23% say they would use a late bus service between Barrow and Loughborough on Friday and Saturday every week.
61. 76% say they nearly always walk, to get somewhere in the village, rather than use some other form of transport.