A COUNCIL is promising to use feedback from young people in its strategy for public transport in the town.

A group of 14 students from High Tunstall School, in Hartlepool, aired their views on a range of transport issues affecting them at a special event organised by the borough council.

The Talkin' Loud event, at Hartlepool Historic Quay, is part of a nationwide project to find an effective way of consulting young people and ensuring their views are fed into the local authority policy-making process.

The event was run on a workshop basis with the students split into small groups to discuss the journeys they made and how they could be improved.

Organisers said some of the main issues to come out of the event were bad behaviour on buses, a lack of bus services and safe crossing points and concern over cycling on roads.

The views expressed at the event will be considered during the formulation of the council's second local transport plan (LTP), a five-year transport strategy required by the Government that will run from 2006 to 2011.

Robert Snowball, the council's travel plan assistant, said: "A lot of schools are working on or have developed school travel plans - local blueprints for reducing dependence on the car on the school run - and we were keen to give young people a chance to contribute to the town-wide transport debate.

"The event went very well, and the students seemed to really enjoy it, saying they felt they had had a real input."