PROTESTS have been voiced over a decision to make Big Brother winner Anthony Hutton an Ambassador for Young People.

Youth workers criticised the decision by Derwentside's Young People's Forum after the winner returned to his home town of Consett, County Durham.

They said his antics in the Big Brother house sent out the wrong messages to young people about binge-drinking and promiscuity.

This week, Anthony was pictured in a national newspaper after an end-of-series party under the headline "Swig Brother: Boozy Ant carried off from party".

Mark Boyd, a youth worker in Derwentside, said: "Anthony is probably a canny lad, but is it the message we want to give young people?

"It is short-sighted. For the last ten years I have been working with the youth of Derwentside trying to highlight the dangers of unprotected sex and binge-drinking.

"Yet here he is being welcomed home and given champagne with gold leaves, after having been seen drinking to excess in the house.

"And this on the day that the Government announced that drink-related deaths in our region had risen by 28.4 per cent and had gone up in the country as a whole."

He said teenage pregnancies had risen by 6.3 per cent since 1998 in Derwentside -18 per cent of which resulted in abortions.

District councillor Kevin Howe, who manages the Single Homeless Action Initiative in Derwentside, said: "I am pleased for Anthony.

"However, I do not think the antics in the Big Brother house should be glamouri-sed.

"If you are being made an ambassador you have to have something to share in that area -not getting drunk, partaking in questionable antics in a pool, swearing and losing your temper."

Fellow councillor Watts Stelling said: "This reward is for notoriety rather than setting standards for young people.

"Anthony can never stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the true ambassadors of Derwentside, such as Bobby Robson, Bob Murray and Terry Deary."

Council leader Alex Watson said the decision to make Anthony an ambassador had been made by the district's Young People's Forum, which the district council gives £10,000 to a year.

He said: "They see Anthony outside the Big Brother house as being of high moral standing, clean-cut and well behaved.

"Big Brother is pure entertainment. It is fictitious and has no bearing on what happens in real life. It has high ratings, with more people voting for Anthony than they did for the Prime Minister."

He said Anthony had apologised to his family for his excesses. Anthony's grandmother Mary said: "He is not a priest. He is 23 years old.

"He did not do much wrong. They had a bit of drink, but they did not have a pool table and did not have anything to do. I think he coped very well.

"He is not a bad lad. He does not take drugs."

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