Ideas discussed to deal with youth nuisance issues in Fleetwood

There have been incidents of youth nuisance in Fleetwood's Memorial Park and other areas of the town, prompting two meetings to discuss possible solutions

At two separate meetings in the town, residents spoke about how the issues are affecting them after weeks of anti-social behaviour around the town and in the Memorial Park.

There were worrying claims that some youths were now carrying knives for protection, while there was another grisly claim that a firework was tied to a cat by cruel pranksters on Bonfire Night.

But many of those at the meeting agreed it was only a small minority causing more serious trouble and more needed to be done to try and steer young people away from trouble.

Coun Rachel George organised one meeting at Fleetwood Conservative Club on Friday, while another was staged by Coun Colette Fairbanks at the Strawberry Gardens pub on Thursday.

Coun George, a Wyre Council members who also serves on Fleetwood Town Council, said: “We had a fairly good turn out and what became clear is that people are unhappy about a lack of communication.

“There are things going on, initiatives for young people or activities by the police to deal with the youth issues , which people know nothing about .

“They see things incidents involving youths going on but do not see the police doing anything about it.”

The councillor said the meeting, which lasted three and half hours, did result in positive ideas aimed at not only reassuring residents, but actively trying to tackle some of the issues.

One ideas was for some business people in Fleetwood to become role models for young people.

People in trades like builders, mechanics or hairdressers could be linked up with young people to give the youths an idea of how they can forge careers and avoid spiralling into further trouble.

Other proposals to tackle on-going problems include making residents more aware of some of the youth projects in the town that some people still aren’t aware of.

And there were proposals for residents to form a group which could liaise with police over on-going issues in the town.

Coun George added: “Most of these young people are not bad but the things that some of them doing are a nuisance and there is danger things could get out of hand and someone could be hurt.

“We have to try and do something because this is our community.”

Police were not able to attend the sessions but a representative of the Wyre Community Safety Partnership did and said the police were activbvely dealing with the issues.