North Tyneside’s Young Mayor and Member of Youth Parliament are to continue in their roles for another term.
At this time of year, a Young Person’s election would usually be set to take place with nominations opening now and the process being completed in March with support from schools.
However, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has meant that the projects relating to the pledges of the current Young Mayor Suzie McKenzie, 15, and Member of Youth Parliament Abi Tang, 17, have had to be put on hold since starting their terms of office in March 2020.
The closure of schools during the first national lockdown in England, which began soon after their elections, as well as the current lockdown has also prevented the elections from being held this year.
It comes as the Government considers the impact the pandemic might have on this year’s local elections, which were also delayed in 2020.
The Young People’s Elections follow a similar democratic process and therefore the decision to not hold elections this year has been made by North Tyneside Council and the British Youth Council.
As a result, both Suzie and Abi will remain in their respective roles for a further term until 2022 to allow them to fulfil their pledges and carry out the work they had originally planned but haven’t yet been able to complete.
After taking on the mantle as Young Mayor, which involves acting as a figurehead for young people in the borough and influencing the decisions of the Mayor and Cabinet, Suzie, a St Thomas More RC Academy pupil, pledged to create better support in schools for mental health issues and work on improving and promoting mental health.
Since then she has created a wristband project whereby all pupils aged 11 to 18 were gifted a colourful wristband bearing the words ‘I’m an NT Quaranteen Survivor’ along with a leaflet featuring helpful tips on how to keep good mental health and how to spot signs of friends and family who may be struggling with theirs.
Suzie has also been using social media to share positive messages with young people. She has a voice on the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Strategic Partnership.
And she has an active role in the newly formed International Youth Mayor Association where she represents local young people, again working on the topic of young people’s mental health.
Together Suzie and Abi have formed a new structure for Youth Council, replacing the Young Cabinet, with committees on Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health; the
Environment, aimed at helping reduce the carbon footprint for North Tyneside; Increased Opportunities, which focuses on period poverty and North Tyneside Council’s Poverty Intervention Fund priorities; a BAME committee (Black and Minority Ethnic) focused on young refugees/asylum seekers living in the borough and linking with the Elected Mayor’s BAME task force; Equalities, which focuses on everyday sexism in schools; and Education and Enterprise to deal with financial education in schools and creating a series of illustrated books for primary school aged children.
Meanwhile, Member of Youth Parliament Abi, who works alongside 400 others from across the country and represents local young people on a regional and national level, pledged to reduce North Tyneside’s carbon footprint and engage young people in tackling climate change.
She continues to work closely with the council’s Sustainable Environment team on behavioural change and promoting the message to reduce, reuse or recycle resources. She is also an active member of the Climate Emergency Board.
Abi and the environment committee will continue to create a series of films helping people to understand the alternatives to throwing away unwanted clothes.
She is also relaunching the Reuse Refill water bottle project which will be linked to the planned water fountains due to be put in place around the coast as part of plastic free coastline.
And Abi is very active in the region influencing other Young Members of UK Parliament helping them to roll out the Reuse Refill project in their own areas.
Suzie said: “I am so lucky to be offered this position for another term. I am looking forward to the new opportunities it will bring that I didn’t get chance to do last year. However, I also feel for those who may have wanted to run for the position this year and realise this may not be ideal but hopefully we will all have a much better 2021.”
Abi added: “This year has been unusual for everybody. Even though as elected youth representatives, we have been given many virtual opportunities over the past year, it has undoubtedly been different and not what we were expecting.
“Extending our term will give the Young Mayor and I some of the opportunities we were most excited for. For example, one of the things I was looking forward to in my term as Member of Youth Parliament was representing the voices of North Tyneside’s young people in London in the House of Commons.”
Elected Mayor Norma Redfearn CBE said: “Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, Suzi and Abi have worked hard to continue promoting their important priorities and have represented young people from the borough admirably with enthusiasm and determination.
“I am sure this determination will continue as they extend their time in the roles and I wish them both all the very best for the coming year.”