The high street has not been an especially inviting place for my generation. To say there's something of a disconnect is a massive understatement. While Bangor might be making headlines at the moment for its curfew preventing under 16s entering the town centre, the truth is many teenagers have long felt locked out.
There is a worrying stigma attached to perceptions of young people before they even set foot in the high street. Just look at last year's ICM poll, which showed that half of Britons believe children are violent and starting to behave like animals. For many creative young people wanting to contribute constructively to the regeneration of their high street such views don't help.
My home town of Stockport may not be quite as bad as Friedrich Engels' description of it in 1845 as:
one of the duskiest, smokiest holes in the whole of the industrial area
but it still has its problems.
I've always felt our town centre could offer so much more. It has all the usual chain identikit stores and earlier this year topped a table for having the highest number of empty shops in the country. But look beyond the multiples and boarded up shops, and there is a rich heritage and creative identity waiting to be reclaimed. What is little known about Stockport, especially to its young people, is that it served as a home to one of the most iconic recording studios in the world, Strawberry Studios.
Termed 'the Abbey Road of the North', Strawberry was founded by four local young musicians whose band, 10cc, would go on to have monumental record sales throughout the seventies. Many of the bands most associated with Manchester, including The Smiths and The Stone Roses, recorded their debut singles at Strawberry Studios and Joy Division even recorded their seminal 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' there.
Strawberry Studios closed just after I was born in 1993 and it's left a big cultural gap. That is why I proposed, as part of Stockport's Portas Pilot bid, that there should be a digital and visual arts centre called Seven Miles Out to act as a creative hub for young people and build on the cultural connections we have with Manchester.
Instead of building legal and cultural barriers to keep young people out, we want our town centre to be a true community space where everyone is welcome, and there's a real sense of discovery.
The arts centre will engage young people through film, music and art, bringing them into what has become the forgotten part of the town. A large feature of the centre will be The Teenage Market, an initiative I organise alongside my 17-year-old brother Tom.
Starting out as a one off event, The Teenage Market redefined the traditional market by giving young creative entrepreneurs a free stall to sell their products. It also gave young acoustic singer-songwriters, folk bands, and comedians a platform to perform, attracting thousands of young people to Stockport.
Seeing such a vibrancy return to the area was incredible, with the energy of young people creating the same type of atmosphere you'd expect to find in Manchester's Northern Quarter.
Our plans now are to put The Teenage Market into an empty retail unit and make it a permanent feature of Stockport's market area. We want to build on the success we've achieved so far by getting the thousands of students who go to college in Stockport to consider coming to The Teenage Market rather than travel to Manchester.
Earlier this week I met Mary Portas for the first time and told her a little about our plans. When she embarked on her high street review, I distinctly recall the chilling warning she gave that some high streets could disappear forever unless radical action was taken.
Stockport is one of many towns at risk. But by making teenagers feel welcome there and giving my generation a key stake in its future I have every confidence we'll emerge from the downturn a far stronger, more confident town.
Joe Barratt, who is 19, led Stockport's successful Portas Pilot bid and launched the Teenage Market to match young entrepreneurs with business mentors, giving them free stalls to try out their ideas. He had a progress meeting with Mary Portas this week and is working to make young people key stakeholders in the development of Stockport and build a youth-led creative community there.
