YOUNG people in Dudley are being urged to help decide what will be on the agenda for an unusual parliamentary debate.

Members of the UK Youth Parliament (MYP), including Kyle Simms from Dudley, will be taking their seats in the House of Commons on Friday November 14 for a session which will be chaired by Commons speaker John Bercow MP and broadcast live on BBC Parliament.

The topics to be discussed will be decided by youngsters during the annual Make Your Mark ballot which will run until Friday October 10.

MYP Kyle Simms, who will be running the Make Your Mark campaign in the West Midlands, said: “Make Your Mark is important because not only does it provide a common goal for UKYP to work towards, it also gives local authorities the means to find what issues affect their young people locally for their local campaigns.

“In Dudley we are aspiring for a target in the region of 15,000 to 25,000 ballots signed. That's nearly double/triple our total last year of over 8,000.

“Politicians need to listen to young people because the media often shows us to be irresponsible and childish meaning our voices are overshadowed by negative stereotypes.

“UKYP has smashed those stereotypes away and opened the path to a brighter and stronger vision of democracy in our nation - one that involves its children and grandchildren, because one day we will step up to the plate and make these decisions ourselves.”

Last year, the Make Your Mark ballot surveyed the opinions of over 478,000 young people, making it the largest youth consultation of its kind in the UK.

This year, MYPs have set themselves a target of getting 1,000,000 young people to take part.

Young people aged 11 to 18 can vote in the Make Your Mark ballot online at www.mi-voice.com/mym/