Student wants more for young people in Hamilton

Grace Jones, 25, says she  is one of thousands of students living in Hamilton  often overlooked  by the council.

Jones has lived in Hamilton most of her life and is currently living in Nawton while doing a nursing degree at Wintec.

She says that while the council has done a great job at finding fun and free things for families with children to do, they tend to forget the large student  population in Hamilton.

“There’s just not a lot for us to do apart from clubbing,” she said. “We need something fun to do that doesn’t necessarily have us going and getting drunk.”

As well as hoping the council will be able to find something for young people, Jones also wishes there was a park closer to her house that didn’t seem “quite so dangerous”.

Jones spends a lot of time looking after her niece and nephews and says it would be nice to take them to a park that seemed safe.

“There’s a really little one down by the community centre. But it’s not that safe either, I can’t imagine parents would want to send their kids there by themselves.”

Jones says that there’s quite a lot of tagging and rubbish around the place that needs to be cleaned up.

 Jones  says that she’s hoping for good things from the new council.

“I do think they’re doing a good job already, it would just be nice to have more reasons for young people to want to stay in Hamilton.”