Lyme Regis: Youngsters to get holiday passports (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)
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Lyme Regis: Youngsters to get holiday passports
10:00am Friday 22nd June 2012 in Lyme Regis By James Tourgout
WISH you were here – youngsters in Lyme Regis have a passport to the holiday of a lifetime all in their own hometown.
Councillor Rikey Austin has created a special youth passport with all kinds of offers for young people to try what is on offer in the holiday town.
They include surfing lessons, mackerel fishing trips, stand-up paddleboarding, rock pooling and fossil hunting.
Coun Austin said that the reaction from organisations and businesses in the town was fantastic as well as the response from young people.
“There has been amazing generosity from people out there who want to give something to the young people of the town.
“We should be proud of the young people of our town.
“They deserve our support. Everybody I approached was delighted to get involved.”
The passport will be issued to every child in the town. Some 1,000 have been given to youngsters of all ages so far but the idea is also to give them out at schools to children when they are seven.
Then, the children will keep them until they are 17.
They can try various activities and attractions in the passport. There is also space at the back as more businesses and organisations become involved.
Lyme Regis Town Council has already agreed to add its putting green and table tennis.
Shops and attractions will carry a poster in their windows saying the passport can be redeemed there.
Coun Austin, whose son Leon, 13, is one of the young people to get a passport, said Lyme was a great place with lots to do but sometimes people didn’t realise what was on their doorstep.
Other offers include fishing trips, visits to the aquarium, windsurfing and have a go sessions with majorettes and bands.
She added: “The young people so far have been really excited.
“They have said that they didn’t know they could do this or that.”
Coun Austin has led the project herself so far rather than it being a town council initiative but she hopes to get the authority’s official stamp of approval for the passport.
