Public call for police to ban yobs for good

Police have used a dispersal order in a bid to stop rowdy teenagers congregating outside Burnley Library after dozens of complaints from the public.
The area outside Burnley Library where police placed a dispersal order to stop yourhs from congregating.The area outside Burnley Library where police placed a dispersal order to stop yourhs from congregating.
The area outside Burnley Library where police placed a dispersal order to stop yourhs from congregating.

Burnley Police issued a Section 34 Dispersal Order last Wednesday after several people complained they felt intimidated by groups of youngsters outside the building in Grimshaw Street.

The order remained in place for 48 hours, until 4-15pm on Friday, and a police spokesman said: “The area covered is the square outside the library. For weeks a number of teenagers have been causing issues for people who are attending the area and work in the area, in particular people visiting the library, Quest Dental Practice and the Peace Gardens.

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“It is the small minority that have spoilt this for the rest, but when staff have tried to discuss the problems the advice was totally ignored.”

The move prompted a deluge of responses on the Burnley Express facebook page with the majority supporting the move.

Steven Dole, who said he hoped the ban would work this time as it had been in place before, said: “No hope for the future of this town if that’s what’s coming through.”

Katharine Collinge said: “I am fed up of having to negotiate skateboards, smoke from cigarettes and weed, rubbish and takeaway boxes just to take my todder to the library. It is a disgrace.”

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Julie Lister described the youngsters as being like a “gang of monkeys on the rampage” and called for a water cannon to solve the problem.

Josephine Bear Bland said the problem was worse in the evening as the youths hung around the cenotaph “trampling on the poppy crosses and spitting.”

Julie Horgan said there was also a problem with youths on the former bandstand. She said: “Their behaviour is horrible and not nice for young children to see or hear.”