IT is less than one week until voters will make one of the biggest decisions in recent history – whether they want the United Kingdon to remain a member of the European Union or leave.

And according to recent reports, the votes of young people could make a key difference.

One teenager who believes this is true is Hereford Sixth Form College student, Ellie Ashton.

The 18-year-old from Monmouth, launched a blog last year and decided to use it as a platform to make sure the voices of young people around the county did not go unheard.

She said: "We have lots of politically engaged students here in Hereford.

"We are often so overlooked, particularly politically, because I think there are such a huge amount of negative stereotypes of being a teenager.

"But at the end of the day we are the future and it is the people who are most politically engaged and socially aware who will be making the decisions in years to come.

"Personally I'll be voting to remain in the EU. I feel that though there are compelling arguments either way but a vote for unity is a vote for a progressive future.

"The EU protects rights that are really important to me and though there are issues with it that need to be addressed I think we can do that best from within the union."

One student, Tom Birch, 17, believes the UK does not need to be spending money on EU membership fees.

"Why don’t we use the money that we send to the EU to fund our critically endangered public services?" he said.

"The ‘remain’ campaign state that we get some of this money back, and yes that is true. But then you wouldn’t give me £100 and the keys to your house and then be ecstatic when I gave you £75 back and the keys to my shed. That is the EU. We are a house, and they are a glorified shed."

Meanwhile, 19-year-old George Lawson said both sides of the campaigns are failing to accurately inform the electorate.

"It’s 'the most important vote of our lives', but yet even I – a politically active member of the left, who has extensively searched for objective information on issues both close and distant to my heart – am not entirely sure what I’m voting for," he said.

Elysia Hughes, 17, said she fears much would be put at risk if the UK left the EU.

She said: "It brings equality in age, race, gender, and sexuality, do you think these things would be a priority under Cameron or any of his minions?

"It also brings security in improvements to the environment with commonly agreed EU standards on quality of air, rivers and beaches – another thing I personally have not seen high up on the Tory ‘to do list’. We need to stay in and improve the EU from the inside."