Rosie Kurnaz

As a new youth council is elected, Islington’s longest serving Young Mayor has waved goodbye to the ­borough – for now.

On Monday, the Town Hall welcomed 14 new youth councillors to the chamber, who have pledged to campaign on a range of issues from animal rights and pov­erty to knife crime and beyond.

Outgoing Young Mayor Rosie Kurnaz, 18, wished them the best of luck – but told the Tribune she isn’t planning on disappearing from the borough’s political scene.

While Ms Kurnaz is no longer an elected representative, she continues to chair council services and deliberate on funding panels – and hopes to return to the Town Hall as a local councillor next time around.

“My short-term aim is hopefully to become an elected councillor within the borough – that’s hopefully a very near dream. Long term, I’m definitely trying to get more involved in politics. I’ll probably start off on local politics and then work up to national politics,” she said.

Although Ms Kurnaz is sad to leave, she said the outgoing youth council is on to “bigger and better things”.

“You can’t stay somewhere forever. The youth council has opened so many doors for councillors, including myself, doors we didn’t even know existed. Now that journey has ended for all of us, I guess it’s time for us to embark on a new one,” she said.

At the end of her term, Ms Kurnaz stressed the “vital” importance of youth politics: “The important thing that young people can bring to politics that other people can’t is a different perspective. The average age of a councillor within the UK is 61. So it’s very difficult for us to expect councillors and local government representatives to understand youth services when they were a teenager 40 years ago.”

She added: “A youth council is honestly just a platform. It’s a connection, it’s a microphone between the adult world and the youth world.”

And the youth council is not just a ceremonial body, Ms Kurnaz said.

“We have a lot of say regarding youth services – we’d be on panels. Recently, we were part of a youth panel for the council appointing a new director of children’s services. It’s amazing that as young people we get a say in the types of people employed in senior positions by the council,” she said. “You want to have a voice in the actual decision-making.”

“A lot of areas and constituencies around London and the UK unfortunately don’t have something like a youth council – they’re missing a youth voice.

“I believe that has a domino effect: without good youth services, there’s no safety, there’s no education, which means there’s no employment, which means crime is going to go up… making sure people have voice in the services they’re using is so important.”

The borough’s 14 new youth councillors