A CONFERENCE on youth disorder due to be held next week has been cancelled.

The event, which was being organised by Bexleyheath police, has now been put back to the New Year, at the request of Bexley Council.

More than 40 invitations have already gone out to groups and organisations for the conference which was scheduled to be held on November 3, at Bexleyheath School.

The council and the police say the event has had to be postponed because so many people could not attend.

Council leader Mike Slaughter said a number of those who had been invited but could not go, had not realised they had been pencilled in to make key contributions to the event.

Cllr Slaughter said he was doubtful he could have attended, and Bexley's education and social services chiefs had also told police they would not be available on the day.

The event is now going to be organised by the Community Safety Partnership, to which both the council and the police, together with other organisations, belong.

Major contributors, including community groups, residents who have suffered problems, and young people, will be approached and the new date will be fixed around their availability.

"We are going to try and get people involved at a much earlier stage," said Cllr Slaughter.

A spokesman for Bexleyheath police said: "I think we were trying to do this too quickly. We are now going to take it slower. There was no question of the council not wanting to co-operate."

Cllr Slaughter added: "We don't want to lose this conference but it is important we are much more involved in its organisation."

He said a recent conference on race, attended by chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality Gurbux Singh, held in Hall Place, Bexley, had taken nearly six months to get off the ground.

October 24, 2001 9:19