Last updated 19:41, Thursday, 15 May 2008

COMPLAINTS have been made about Cockermouth police’s handling of the town’s new dispersal order, introduced on Thursday.

Officers now have the power to move gangs of youths acting anti-socially in the town centre from Derwent Mills, up to Lorton Road and across Market Place and issue fines of up to £2,500 if they refuse to move.

But on Friday night, youngsters who were behaving themselves were told to move.

Sergeant Gary Armstrong was on call on Friday and told Cockermouth Town Council this week that he was inundated with calls from concerned parents about the order.

He said: “I lost count of the number of calls from parents. They had concerns.

“Once I explained what it was about they were much happier.

“It is not just if there are 10 kids in the park. They are allowed to use it, that’s what it is there for.

“There were mistakes made initially. I hold my hands up to that, but they have been rectified.

“Police officers have been briefed that people stopped must be acting in an anti-social way before a dispersal takes place.

“Dispersal orders are not granted lightly. On Thursday night it didn’t start in the best possible way.”

Police moved 16 people on from the town centre last weekend.

Inspector Martin Connolly, of Cockermouth police, said: “There have been instances where young people have been caught up in the dispersal order in the vicinity of the youths who were creating disorder, so we are working to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

He added that since the order started there had been an improvement in youth behaviour.

“We are not getting those hoards of people coming in from outlying towns and villages,” he said.

However, youngsters from the Cockermouth area are concerned that they are being penalised.

Cockermouth School pupil Claire Dumbill, 14, said young people were not a public enemy and they were made to feel unwelcome.

Claire, of Bridekirk, said: “I have experienced this prejudice first hand, being watched in local shops, as if being between the ages of 13 and 18 means that I am likely to steal something or being glared at by passing shoppers for standing outside Sainsbury’s, not blocking the doorway or making too much noise.

“I am not for one minute suggesting that anti-social behaviour is not a growing problem in Cockermouth and surrounding area, but surely it is the minority of the young population who are actually causing the trouble and who need to be targeted, using individually tailored constraining orders such as anti-social behaviour orders.

“Many of us have been made to feel unwelcome in our own town, and I believe the poor, overly suspicious attitudes of some people are a problem that need to be tackled alongside the problem of anti-social behaviour.

“People seem to be forgetting that we are, in fact, fully entitled members of the community.”

Cockermouth School headteacher Stuart Reeves said that he supported the police, and was convinced very few of his students are involved.

He said: “The vast majority of our children do not get involved with anti-social behaviour and I would describe them as model citizens.

“Some students have expressed concerns that they may be moved on unjustifiably but I have tried to reassure them that, so long as they are not causing trouble, they should continue about their business.”

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