Hackney Mayor grilled by Petchey Academy pupils and Youth Parliament for democracy week

Young people got the chance to “grill Phil” at a meeting to mark Democracy Week, hot on the heels of last month’s inaugural Mayor’s Question Time.

Mayor of Hackney Phil Glanville invited representatives from Hackney Youth Parliament and The Petchey Academy to his office on Thursday where they discussed their concerns and interests.

Topics up for debate included schools funding, tackling gang crime, support for young people with disabilities and the Grenfell Tower fire.

Skye Fitzgerald-McShane asked what is being done to ensure the mental health of young people, which sparked discussion about support in schools and how exam stress and anxiety can affect young people.

Phil said: “I enjoyed meeting such an engaged group of young people and it was really valuable to find out what’s important to them at the moment and how they see life in the borough. Their thoughts and questions – along with the work of the Youth Parliament – help to shape policies across the council.

“I was particularly interested to hear how passionate they were about votes for 16-year-olds and how concerned they are about schools funding. I’d like to thank them for coming and I hope they found it as useful as I did.”