Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Wiltshire teenagers don't get the press they deserve.
It was a reasonably interesting meeting but two issues came to light that show our teenagers in a rather more positive light than the newspapers often do.

Firstly, for every Wiltshire teenager that comes to the notice of the police there are ten that are taking their Duke of Edinburgh Award. So the percentage of erring teenagers is actually quite small.

Secondly, there are teenagers all over the county that give their time to be trained and then act as unpaid 'advisers' to the Wiltshire Youth Development Service. In a recent Ofsted inspection of the service one of the comments was 'Opportunities for young people to engage in decision-making are outstanding.'