Money talks at Big Listen

Paul Cleary, age 11 from Bowlee Park Primary School, Middleton, Megan Hernon, age 10 from Moorhouse Primary School, and Demi Casson, age 10 from Bowlee Park Primary, at the Big Listen event.

Young people spent an afternoon with council decision makers telling them how they would like the council to spend money.

The event was part of this year’s Big Listen, which was all about money – from earning and investing, to saving and managing cash.

A number of council officials and private companies hosted workshops at the event, which was held at the Norton Grange Hotel, to gather views and ideas from the hundreds of children taking part.

Children wanted more activities for young people, longer opening hours at gyms and more laptops in schools.

During the event young people also got to vote on what they would like to see in the council's new children and young people’s plan using handheld voting devices.

Katie Thompson from Belfield Community Primary said: “I really liked voting because you got to have your own ideas. It was good because it was different and easy to do."

Oliver Durcan from Cardinal Langley RC High School said: “I found the sessions on finance surprisingly good and the workshop leaders were great – they made the workshops really fun.”