Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash
SATURDAY ESSAY: As we sat amongst the scattered empty cartons from take away food, the piss and the rubbish that was strewn in the alcove of the bus shelter, I realised that what we needed required hardly any money, but something much more simple, we need to give young people in Pevensey Bay their voice. Not our voice, their voice..—Bay Life, 24 February 2018
The 12 by 8 foot £4,000 portacabin that would bring hope to the young people of Pevensey Bay
Sitting in the bus shelter interviewing four young local lads aged 15 is an educational experience, the time spent in their company is of more value than all the committee meetings in all the Wallsend Road.
The four are firm friends and can be seen around the Bay enjoying each others company.
To many people, as they indicate themselves, they look like trouble. They give examples of people that simply ask them, what are you doing here?
The spokesman for the group, who asked to be called Finn, began to talk about Pevensey Bay.
If we are in any doubt that we need to support young people aged around 15 in Pevensey Bay, this conversation gives us some insight into the context of a village that takes no account at all of the young people in our midst, that are perhaps more articulate than all of us put together.
What I asked Finn and his group is what they would really want as young people, here in Pevensey Bay, because let us face things, there is nothing here for young people is there?
I might have expected an expletive, but Finn listened and spoke quietly about his aspirations and the aspirations of the group.
I might have expected something grand, but the answer he gave me, told me perhaps everything that we need to know.
“We just want something like this”, he answered, as we looked around us at the 12ft by 8ft bus shelter, sitting in the freezing cold as his friends looked on and listened in to our conversation.
“It does not even have to be heated”.
Puzzled, I began to listen in to what the group had to say.
Finn talked about the place being somewhere where they could just listen to music. His friend standing next to us, suggested something inspired, the principle behind the European Parliament “maybe the place could be round, then we could all talk to each other”.
As the discussion continued, the 15 year old friends, two from Beachlands in the Bay, one from up the unidentified road and one from Stone Cross, they began to open up about how they were seen in Pevensey Bay as a group and something, just a little, about their perception of how they were seen and what was said to them.
“There was a bloke up the road, and all we got was dirty looks. Some bloke came out of his house and said what are you doing there? We were not doing anything, just standing there”.
He added “the bloke said you are here to cause trouble aren’t you”.
As the friends began to speak, the articulacy with which they could identify their position in the community, their perception of the circumstances here from their point of view and their ability to articulate precisely what was needed here began to unfold.
Finn explained “we need somewhere a bit out of the way”, his friend sitting by his side added, “yes, not near a pub or anything, somewhere a bit out of the way”.
Finn began to provide an overview of the locality from the point of view of young residents aged 15 that made six month consultations conducted by East Sussex Country Council and their expert reports look ridiculous.
In single sentences he could identity everything that we will ever need to know about the needs of young people in the locality.
“The thing”, he said, adjusting what he had to say because he now knew that his words would appear in the Pevensey Bay Journal “the thing is, this is where people who are a bit older live, it has got the history, like the castle, but that is for older people, what we need is a sheltered place, somewhere quiet”.
As we sat amongst the scattered empty cartons from take away food, the piss and the rubbish that was strewn in the alcove of the bus shelter, I realised that what we needed required hardly any money, but something much more simple, we need to give young people in Pevensey Bay their voice. Not our voice, their voice.
A simple space, the size of a 12 foot bus shelter might be all that they need, but of course if it was their space, apart from their music, my guess is that the space would be kept tidy, with no empty take away cartons, piss or other detritus to get in their way.
There were no cue cards in my hand, no prompts that said Trumplike “I hear you”, because I heard what they said.
What this group of four young friends, led by Finn, had said, was that they wanted to be a part of Pevensey Bay, better still, they wanted to make their own part of Pevensey Bay.
That seems more than reasonable, as did their articulate words that tumbled out as they began to talk.
So might it be possible to connect a whole section of the community, voiceless, disenfranchised, unnoticed apart from the angry man who gave them dirty looks and came out of his house to tell them that they were causing trouble by being here, to Pevensey Bay?
This notion seems completely reasonable when you think about things, because these 15 year old lads live here.
Hum Merriman MP is to be invited to Pevensey Bay to listen to what the four lads have to say, the bus shelter is not in a circle, like the European Parliament, but as a venue, the bus shelter space will work well as a meeting point.
Bay Life will listen in to the discussion and when the discussion has taken place, we will attempt to help Finn and his friends fund and build their own portacabin, here in Pevensey Bay.
The space will be about the size of a bus shelter, something like 12 foot by 8 foot, cost less than £4,000, and will not even need (as Finn pointed out) to be heated.
My guess is that as well as their music, the articulacy of their discussions, will heat the space and illuminate our lives.
Simon Montgomery
editor
