The ceremonial role, held by an 11 year old pupil, aims to get more children invested in local politics by the time the scheme starts next Christmas. Abiona Boja reports.
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00:00Built on three years of work making Medway a child-friendly city, Councillor Adam Price
00:10has pushed a motion to create a young mayor role. He told me more about why involving
00:15children in politics matters.
00:17They've got a stake in the future community of Medway, and we're going to give them that.
00:22They're going to be working with their peers, so they'll have to convince their peers in
00:26order to be able to become one of the young mayors of Medway, but also the young mayors
00:33of Medway is a really exciting bit of that. It's going to be supported by seven deputy
00:36mayors, so that means that we're going to have truly a flexible diversity for the community.
00:44While there has been some criticism about investment into this scheme, the council has
00:48assured that funding will be externally sourced, and it's got cross-party support.
00:53Councillor George Perfect, who got involved with politics as a student, told me more.
00:57Bringing in younger voices is very important, and the young mayor's programme, as I understand
01:02it, will seek to engage with junior schools, but will also not only talk about politics
01:07and getting young people thinking about the decisions that are taken that affect them,
01:11but also civic life, and more widely in terms of ensuring that British values, etc., are
01:17embedded amongst children and young people within Medway.
01:21By next Christmas, Medway will have its first-ever young mayor to put children's needs at the
01:26forefront of Medway politics. But what do the Year Fives of Swingate Primary School
01:31think of the scheme?
01:32If I were the mayor, I would build more places to charge electric cars, because it might
01:36encourage people to switch to electric cars. It will help the environment.
01:39If I was the mayor of Medway, I would make more shelters for the homeless people, and
01:49pick up litter.
01:50If I was the mayor of Medway, I would make more food banks and more homeless shelters,
01:56and raise more money for charities and people in need, and make more electric cars to make
02:03pollution better.
02:04What's your favourite bit about being from Medway?
02:07It's fun here. We have a lot of greenery.
02:12We've got lots of parks.
02:14Are you guys all planning to run for young mayor?
02:17Yeah.
02:18Yeah.
02:20With the future in such passionate and thoughtful hands, the elected young mayor is sure to
02:25inspire both adults and children.
02:27Abiona Boyer, KMTV, Chatham.