YOUNG people from Dorset took time out fighting for their rights at a youth conference.

James Jones, Lloyd Hatton, James Morphakis, Natasha Glendening and Moya Dunne, all county members of the UK Youth Parliament, joined other young delegates from the south west for a regional residential conference.

It gave them an opportunity to plan their campaigns, learn about their role as a member of UKYP, find out about e-safety and even enjoy a fancy dress competition where they had to dress up as their favourite heritage hero.

The group of 11 to 18 year olds took some time to make Cornish pasties, travelled back in time to campaign and make banners surrounding votes for women, acted out the Cornish rebellion and even took part in a Ceilidh with music from a live authentic Cornish band.

The activities took place in the Sands Hotel, Newquay, and made for light relief from the challenges of planning local manifestos and completing action plans for the year ahead, to represent and give young people a voice in their local area.

Lloyd Hatton, 17, who attends the Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester said: “The regional residential was really influential for all of us and I learnt a lot about the key next steps we have to take for UKYPs national campaign ‘A Curriculum for Life’ and I will now write letters to schools and MPs asking for their support.

“My favourite part of the weekend was the ‘Question Time’ style event as it was an interesting tool to generate debate and allowed young people to voice their concerns on a global scale.

“From the workshop regarding ‘Votes for Women’ I learnt about how women got the vote and found it difficult to decide whether I would have been a Suffragette or a Suffragist.”

At the conference all the members and deputies choose their three main priorities for the year ahead and for the area of Dorset these were raising awareness of LGBTU groups, getting young people more involved in democracy and action to decrease exam stress.