A CRACKDOWN on anti-social behaviour is taking place in Lillington after a rise in reports of youngsters causing trouble.
A dispersal zone covering Crown Way, Mason Avenue, Valley Road and adjacent streets was due to expire last Sunday, but police in Leamington successfully applied for it to be extended for a further three months until November 9 after an increase in anti-social behaviour.
Dispersal powers are granted under section 30 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 and allow officers in uniform and Police Community Support Officers to order people to leave the area and not return for a specified amount of time if they are believed to be causing trouble.
Officers from the Leamington North Safer Neighbourhood Team said they had seen a seasonal rise in reports of anti-social behaviour in recent weeks, coinciding with the start of the school summer holidays. They had been using powers under the existing dispersal zone to try and combat it.
PC Jon Belcher, of the neighbourhood team, said: “The dispersal zone is not intended to act as an exclusion zone to prevent people from accessing the facilities within it, but to ensure that they do so in an acceptable way so that others don’t have to suffer from anti-social behaviour.
“There has been a history of anti-social behaviour within this area and until the start of the school holidays we were pleased with the overall reduction in issues being reported to us. Officers can now continue to use proportionately the powers granted by this order to bring levels of anti-social behaviour back down.”
He added that the extension meant officers will be able to carry on using dispersal powers for the remainder of the summer holidays, as well as during bonfire night and Hallowe’en.
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