Okehampton Town Council is upping its game and hopes to approach young people directly to ask their opinions on the possibility of establishing a youth council in town after students failed to respond to online survey.

The survey revealed that many residents are favourable to the idea of establishing a youth council but few of those respondents were children or teenagers themselves which has led the council to search for alternative ways of hearing young people’s opinions.

Speaking at the latest council meeting, Cllr Lynne Rogers, said: “I think that the reason [we] probably didn’t get a lot of response from that age group is because we don’t use the social media they use. [Youth work] is also something I’m quite passionate about because I have worked with children since I was quite young so I’d like to put myself forward [to help].”

Cllr Simon Weekes echoed Cllr Rogers’ thoughts, adding: “I think it’d be a fantastic thing to bring to the town with all the aspects of that it could bring in. I’m happy to help in any way that could possibly help, go into schools or talk to young people.”

Councillors have now set up a task and finish group for the project and are working to approach schools directly as a way of gathered the opinions of the town’s young people themselves.

The survey ran from the end of July to mid-August with a total of 65 responses, 51 of whom described themselves as a “member of the community.”