IN the first of a series featuring the area's police inspectors, Insp John Scott, who is in charge of Astley Bridge, Bromley Cross, Bradshaw and Crompton, talks about the issues affecting the area and what is being done to tackle it.

One of the challenges is large groups of youths congregating, especially as the summer holidays begin.

Mr Scott said: "When young people get together they can be really intimidating and perceptions of their behaviour from residents can vary enormously.

"At the beginning of the summer we saw large groups congregating in Harwood as well as other areas where the young people utilised social media to arrange their meeting points.

"They had come from all over the borough after being updated on various social media outlets. On the whole, the young people had been well behaved and had little or no involvement with the police previously.

"Unfortunately the behaviour of the young people deteriorated when they came together in the larger groups and initial police advice and guidance failed to change their actions.

"A number of tactics were brought into play under Operation Stonehaven which brought in additional officers to deal with the issues. Ideally we didn’t want to criminalise our young people, so youth outreach workers supported the police action to direct them to the youth provision across the borough."

The issues in Harwood included an incident in April when firefighters were pelted with bricks and fireworks as they tackled a fire in a wooded area off Ashdene Crescent, near Longsight Lane.

At least 30 yobs had congregated in the wooded area.

Mr Scott said: "As a result of the operation there were a number of arrests and referrals to the anti-social behaviour pathway, which can eventually see community behaviour orders placed on offenders by the courts.

"Some of the groups have remained challenging to officers and the local residents, however there has been a fundamental change in how they behave and congregate.

"The operation will continue over the summer period under the banner of #Safe4summer.

"It is really important that all play a part in how our children behave by asking ourselves if we know where our children are and who are they with. Why have they come to this location? Young people’s behaviour is often changed when in groups, despite what their own values are, and they can become involved in anti-social behaviour.

"Not only does this affect the local residents but can affect their future prospects."