Warwickshire News Mine

Hartshill School, The Coleshill School - A Maths and Computing College and Polesworth International Language College will be battling it out in one of a series of schools debates around the county.

The school pupils will have the opportunity to make their views heard loud and clear on hot topics such recycling and reducing the voting age to 16.

The Local Democracy Campaign school debate will kick off at 4pm today (Wednesday 10th October) at Atherstone Town Hall. Schools debate events are also taking place in Leamington, Stratford-upon-Avon and Rugby.

The North Warwickshire debate has been organised by Warwickshire County Council and North Warwickshire Borough Council.

Not Simon Cowell or Dannii Minogue, but a panel of judges made up of local Councillors including county Councillor Richard Grant (Labour – Hartshill division) and district Councillors, Cllr Les Smith (Conservative – Fillongley ward) and Cllr Brian Moss (Labour – Kingsbury Ward) will decide which school has demonstrated the winning ‘X factor’ in the debate!

Richard Dobbs, Assistant Director of North Warwickshire Borough Council’s Streetscape Division, will chair the debate.

The star school from the North Warwickshire debate will then go on to take part in a grand finale at Warwick’s Shire Hall on Thursday 18th October, where they will try to reach their ultimate goal of being crowned Warwickshire’s school debating champions for 2007. 

The grand finale will be followed by a ‘Question Time’ session, giving an audience of young people the chance to grill local politicians including Mike Natrass MEP (West Midlands – UK Independence Party), Warwickshire’s Members of the Youth Parliament and Warwickshire County Council Leader, Cllr Alan Farnell.

Councillor Alan Farnell said: “This year’s Local Democracy Campaign is all about taking part and taking power and we are actively encouraging young people to do just that in these debates.

"It is about getting young people to recognise the impact local politics has on their daily lives and encouraging them to get involved in debates about issues that affect them as individuals. I’m delighted to be involved and look forward to hearing some interesting arguments at the grand finale!”

Warwickshire County Council, in partnership with the county’s borough and district councils, will also be launching a number of political speed dating events, a young journalist competition and regular weblogs on the Warwickshire County Council website as part of this year’s Local Democracy Campaign.

Link to WCC