A CREDITON teenager is spearheading a campaign calling on Devon County Council to reconsider cuts to its youth service.

Hannah Smith (15) is a member of Crediton Youth Centre and also volunteers at "The Black and White Club" a youth club for young people with additional needs.

She has sent a letter, with an unusual enclosure, to members of Devon County Council, Crediton Town Council and the Senior Council

The enclosure was an acorn, which was accompanied by a letter headed: "This acorn could change lives."

Hannah told the Courier she had fears about a lesser youth service provision at Crediton Youth Centre.

"It could be stopped, youth workers could lose their jobs or, if it stays open, it may not be of such a high quality as it is now," she explained.

Devon County Council is considering plans to slash the Devon Youth Service budget by £850,000, or 15 per cent, as it aims to spend nearly £55 million less in the next financial year in response to Government cuts.

Hannah has involved other young people who attend youth clubs at Crediton in her campaign.

She involved some of them in her "acorn" appeal.

With each acorn to councillors, she included a letter which reads:

"This acorn is one of 500.

"We, young people in Devon, have sent out a forest. This acorn has been sent to you for a reason!"

The letter says what you do with the acorn is up to you, but asks those who receive it to first consider what its parent tree has lived through, what advice it would give, what the world would be like when the acorn is an adult tree. What it will have seen and changes it experienced.

It talks about the right nutrients and amounts of water and light it might receive before reaching maturity and asks: "Is there something that you could do to ensure the world it will grown up in is a better place?"

For full story see issue 871.