I'm the voice of town's young

4:41pm Monday 17th March 2008

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ERIN Burrows is the proud owner of some serious bling.

What's different about Erin's favourite jewellery however, is that it was chosen for her by 3,000 of her peers.

Erin, 15, is the new Southend Youth Mayor.

She gets to wear her chain of office at monthly youth council meetings and out and about at functions across the district.

The role is much more than that though. While it would be easy to dismiss the youth council as a junior debating society, the group of around 70 teenagers are currently dealing with a very real budget of £20,000 and are held responsible for turning all their decisions into action.

Erin says as a result, they have been able to make a real impact in the past few years.

"We created a DVD on how not to consult young people, which is now being used by youth services all over the country," says Erin, a pupil at Eastwood School. "We would often get sent lots of huge documents to read from organisations wanting our help and we wouldn't know what half the words were," she smiles. "So we put together a DVD explaining a better way of doing things, which won us a lot of recognition."

Other recent successes have included an anti-bullying and discrimination campaign called I Am What I Am, and also a project to break down barriers between the town's teenagers and its older residents, which has seen the youth council set up karaoke nights and other social events at residential care homes.

It hasn't always been Erin's ambitions to become a leading political light. In fact, she only went along to her first youth council meeting 18 months ago, because her elder brother Matthew didn't want to go on his own.

"I remember walking into the council chamber and being impressed at how grand it was," she says. "I remember the youth mayor sitting above everyone else looking really important. It was quite an exciting experience."

While Matthew has moved on to university, Erin has become more and more involved. To such an extent, that she now fancies a career in local government, and will study Government and Politics at A Level.

"I didn't really have a clue what I wanted to do before, but being involved with the council has really opened my eyes up to politics."

Although, she did have an early taste of taking political action, she just never realised.

"When I used to go from my mum to my dad's house, I had to walk down an alleyway that was always really dark in the winter," she explains. "So when I was about eight, I wrote a letter to the council saying that there needed to be a lampost there and they put one in. I've always been proud of that lampost," she says with a smile.

When the mayorship came up at the start of this year, Erin put herself forward. Together with five rivals she drafted a manifesto, which was then sent out to all the schools in the area.

The students then picked out their favourites based on the candidates plans for the year, without knowing who the wannabe youth mayors were.

"Doing it that way meant people were voting on what that person wanted to do, rather than who they were," explains Erin.

"I didn't expect to win, but I thought I'd give it a go. When it grew nearer I did start to think, this could be me for the next year and I was really excited when I got it."

Not as excited as her mum however.

"She cried when she found out," says Erin. "She was so proud." Erin's mum has also taken on the role of speech assistant and chauffeur.

Erin's three aims for the year are to develop networks within schools and local businesses, raise awareness of environmental issues, including the introduction of a recycling scheme in schools, and raise the profile of the youth council amongst her peers to get more young people involved.

"I don't think we get out enough and show people who we are and what we do," she explains. "People don't understand the influence we can have on the council. I know there are lots of people who would love the opportunity to get involved, they just don't know how.

"This is a way to prove that young people don't hang round on the streets causing trouble," says Erin. "We can do something productive and the youth council is evidence of that."