IMPASSIONED pleas to keep youth provision for all in West Devon were made to councillors last week.

A special meeting in Okehampton to discuss the future of youth services in the county heard young people from across the borough stress the importance of maintaining existing services, wholeheartedly rejecting the shift towards purely reactive help for those most vulnerable in a bid to save costs.

Devon County Council does not have a statutory duty to provide youth services and is facing a £100-million shortfall in its budget over the next four years. A series of meetings are being held across the county to review youth services.

The meeting in Okehampton was well attended by youth leaders including those from local voluntary organisations. They said that many young people in the area relied on the existing services particularly in the rural area.

The need for youth leaders in the rural areas being given the outreach support was highlighted as a major issue.

West Devon youth worker Vicki Lloyd said the bottom line was that universal youth provision, which included a network of youth clubs, youth workers, advice and support to prevent young people getting into problems, was most likely to go, because so much money needed to be saved.

'The proposals are to work with certain agencies over a six month period to help vulnerable young people but what happens at the moment is much longer term than that,' she said.

'The current services are led by young people, there is lots of consultation and we provide what they want, everything from playing pool and socialising, to things like sexual advice and careers advice. They can access this two or three times a week and see the same people and trust is built.

'It is about tackling any issues before they develop into problems and this is very big thing to potentially take away from the young people from this area, and all over Devon.'

There is a move towards working with voluntary organisations to provide a network of youth provision, but the feeling is that the voluntary sector is already overstretched.

With the recent closure of the youth café in Tavistock and the withdrawal of the partnership between the youth café and Devon Youth Service, there are already concerns that youth provision will suffer.

In Bere Alston although the existing youth work is externally funded, it does rely on the county outreach links to avoid an isolated existence.

West Devon borough councillor for the Bere Peninsula Robin Musgrave, who attended the meeting, said a very good case was made by the young people: 'It was the passion of these youngsters that I could not get over. They were so forceful and very coherent in saying this simple message, that they felt the services were so invaluable. It was very powerful, very compelling.'

West Devon MP Geoffrey Cox has added his weight to the campaign to keep the present youth service: 'I have spoken to Devon county council on this matter and while I know it has to find major savings, I think there is a strong case that in our rural areas there must be such a service,' he said.

'There is a critical need in parts of this constituency and I am extremely reluctant to see any dismantling of that.'

County councillor for Tavistock Debo Sellis said in the future youth provision had to be an amalgamation of services and organisations working together to get best value for money.

'Everybody would like the existing provision to continue but we just do not have the money and we do not have a statutory duty to provide it,' she said.

She added that voluntary groups like the Methodist Chapel Youth Club in Tavistock were really well supported and historically provided a service to the youth of the town.

Devon county council cabinet member responsible for youth services Will Mumford said the youth service was a key part of the offer the council delivered to young people and to communities.

'But it is clear that the service needs to change if we are to continue to meet our statutory duties and serve our communities well with the resources available,' he said.

'Changes in Government policy and a need to focus more on helping young people in most need mean that we must look again at the way that these services are currently delivered.'

The county council's budget for youth provision in 2013/2014 is £3.7-million. A further series of meetings to discuss youth provision will take place this month. Comments are also being invited on the council's website.