Bury’s young people put adult voters to shame as they elect a Member of Youth Parliament

Date published: 11 March 2010

On March 4 young people in Bury elected their Member of United Kingdom Youth Parliament (UKYP) with a record number of 9014 votes cast, or 46% of young people in Bury aged 11-18. This figure is considerably higher than the 38.22% of adults who voted in Bury’s last local election.

This year saw 11 candidates campaign to be Bury’s next Member of Youth Parliament or deputy MYP. 1821 young people cast their vote to elect Jamie Walker, 15 of Radcliffe Riverside High School as Bury’s Member of Youth Parliament.

Over 2000 others split their votes between Joshua Achumba of Parrenthorn High School and Tom Sharman of Tottington High School who were jointly elected as Deputy Members of Youth Parliament.

These young people will debate with young people locally in Bury, at North West Regional meetings and nationally at the UKYP Annual Sitting. They will meet with politicians and decision makers to make positive changes for young people in Bury and across the country.

Councillor Diana Ashworth, Executive Member for Children and Young People, said . “The fantastic turnout was down to the candidate’s extremely positive campaigning and also to the excellent support of the council’s Electoral Services department which worked along side Connexions and Bury Youth Service to train presiding officers, provide polling stations and assist with the count. Schools also deserve praise for their excellent organisation of pupils to ensure that every young person had the opportunity to get to a polling station and vote.