A CAMPAIGN opposing any plans to close youth centres grilled Haringey Council's chief executive at a meeting last Thursday to demand the valued resources stay open.

The fired-up crowd - Save Haringey Youth Centres - turned on Kevin Crompton when he asked the teenagers what they would cut if they were in the council's position of having to make £50 millions savings.

Graduate Symeon Brown, co-founder of Haringey Young People Empowered (HYPE), said: "I find it very disheartening that you [Mr Crompton] have come here tonight with your six-figure salary, and your best defence is to ask young people to do the cuts for you.

"I would like to know if the council has done an equalities impact assessment to find out how our young people will be affected by these cuts."

Parent Samantha Browne, of Colney Hatch Lane, said: "As a mother of a teenage son, my fears for his safety are always on my mind but I know my son is safe and also staying positive when at Muswell Hill youth centre.

"If it closed, my son and his friends will find themselves very vulnerable to the negative pressures plaguing our society and this would cost the taxpayer much more in the future.

"I urge all parents and adults in the community to support our children as they campaign to save a valuable resource for us all."

Young people involved in the campaign represent current youth centres based in Bruce Grove, Muswell Hill, Wood Green but are now being joined by young people who have already lost their youth centres in Bounds Green and Stroud Green. So far more than 1,000 signatures have been collected in support of the campaign.