Children and young people across the district have written 1,000 cards to the leaders of Bradford Council, saying all they want for Christmas is their youth service.

Bradford Council is currently consulting on plans to cut its youth service funding by almost 80 per cent, as part of its budget plan for next year.

A team of anti-cuts campaigners handed in hundreds of the Christmas cards to Council leader Councillor David Green, with more due to pile in to City Hall throughout today.

The cards have been filled in by young people and workers at youth centres and clubs and each one explains why the service is important.

Messages written in the cards include: “I need somewhere to go to see someone who will listen.”

“It makes me feel like I am a part of something bigger.”

“It’s part of child protection. A lot of people who get abused at home don’t tell anyone but youth workers, because they feel comfortable with them.”

One of the lead campaigners, Piers Telemacque of Bradford College Students’ Union, said: “They’re a thousand reasons to say no to cutting the youth service.”

He said on his way to City Hall on Friday, he had even managed to recruit more young campaigners to the cause.

This included 16-year-old Martyna Bartoszewicz, who said she had been on her way to visit the Connexions advice service for young people because she feared she was about to be made homeless.

Mr Telemacque told Coun Green: “If it hadn’t been for the youth service, this girl could have been homeless over Christmas.”

Coun Green said until now, the youth service had been relatively protected by the cuts.

He said: “It’s been cut less than many other Council services in Bradford but you get to the point where you have almost got nowhere else to go.”

But he said the consultation wasn’t a “box-ticking exercise” and that the Council would listen to the views of the public.

Mr Telemacque said one of the upsides to the campaign was the way it had got a lot of young people engaged in politics.