ELEVEN of the remaining 18 youth workers at Wiltshire Council face redundancy, leaving just seven officers for the county’s 100,000 children.

It is less than two years after youth services in Wiltshire underwent a major cutback.

In May 2014 Wiltshire Council announced that the number of youth workers was to be cut from 144 to just 25. Now the council has told staff that the remaining roles of community youth officers are to be scrapped and will be replaced with just seven staff to be known as locality youth facilitators.

This decision has infuriated Wiltshire councillor Jon Hubbard and alarmed Unite regional officer Alan Tomala.

Coun Hubbard said: "I think it is a disgrace. Young people in Wiltshire were done over when the youth service was decimated two years ago.

“It is all but destroyed and what little was left is being taken away.

“There is a group of people there trying to create something and build something out of it and just as the green shoots are starting to show the rug is being pulled out from those who are delivering it."

But Simon Jacob, chairman of Devizes Area Board, said he believed the problem was that some of the community youth officers were not doing a good job.

He praised former Devizes youth worker Sally Willox, who left a few months ago for family reasons, but said others were less effective.

He said: "In Devizes under Sally we had a lot of very positive work going on and that is now being carried on by the Tidworth youth worker who took on Devizes as well when Sally left.

"But the truth is that not all others are as effective."

Mr Tomala said: "We are keeping an eye on the situation and will be meeting with staff shortly. This is a worrying development."

When the original decision was made to save £250,000 by cutting youth staff and shutting youth clubs Mr Tomala said: "This is our worst fear being realised and there is a lot of anger out there not just from our members but from the young people the council is meant to be looking after."

The remaining youth workers now under threat of redundancy have been offered the chance to apply for the new roles but those who do not take up one of the new posts will be offered support to find new positions in the council.

The latest youth worker redundancies are to help enable Wiltshire Council to make £25m of savings across its budget this year.

Mr Hubbard said: “The new people will be given an impossible job. The roles that the current workers have are impossible.

Laura Mayes, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “Wiltshire’s young people will continue to be able to access a broad range of activities they enjoy under the new way of working.

“We are grateful to all the communities who are already very active in providing youth activities in many of our areas and we will be encouraging them to continue to do this supported by the area boards, community engagement managers and our Locality Youth Facilitators.”