At last '“ the ideal politician

The DIY MPs were created from old clothes with shredded paper for stuffing and balloons for heads.

They were put together by teams of about a dozen youngsters as they created political campaigns, made policies and learned about the voting process.

Westergate Community School pupil Lucy Donaldson (15) said: 'My ideal politican would be someone who would listen to young people and give us a chance to put our views.

'What we want is proper funding for the services we have rather than new services.

'Our schools don't have the proper resources, they could offer so many more opportunities if they had the funding, and our hospital is being threatened with partial closure.

'We don't want to be the generation dying on the A27 on the way to the nearest hospital. We want a politician who is interested in making things better for the area rather than just being interested in money.'

A listening politician would also learn that the majority of young people in the area were far from the ASBO-loaded yobs which the national media portrayed them as, said Lucy.

'That's an unfair representation because there are only a few like that,' she added. The role of the media in determining how young people were viewed was one of the topics considered at the youth conference. The others included arts and culture, economic matters, the future of local hospitals, road safety and climate change.

Each team, with help from Arun District Council officers, discussed and debated the subjects. They produced visual and written material and made a presentation about their ideas.

About a hundred students attended this year's youth conference at the Arena Sports Centre on Westloats Lane in Bognor.

Arun Youth Council chairman Simon Fuller (18) was involved in organising his fourth and final conference.

He said: 'The conference gives young people a real opportunity to voice their opinion and engage with adults, look to the future and be part of the decision making process.'

A sixth former at St Philip Catholic High School in Barnham, he said comments from the conference would be reported back to members of Arun District Council.

'We have an incredible amount of support from the full council meeting. They are always more than happy to give us the chance to speak. It allows us to say what our views are about subjects.'