Determined teenagers have vowed to continue their fight to save youth services in the area, amid plans to slash the county’s budget by more than half.
It has not yet been confirmed which services are under threat, but Essex County Council is looking to reduce the department’s budget from £5million to £2million a year, just 18 months after it cut it back from £12million.
A six-week public consultation finished last month, with the responses being fed into a final report for Ray Gooding, county councillor for children and families.
Hedingham School pupil Connie Lunn and her friends say they persuaded “hundreds” of people in the Halstead area to complete and return consultation forms.
They also set up a Facebook campaign group.
The teenagers fear services such as the youth bus, which visits Halstead’s Butler Road car park and many of the surrounding villages, and the youth centre based at Hedingham School, could be lost.
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