Anti-social behaviour around a fast-food restaurant has been described as an issue by local police officers.
Senior police officers attended the Westhoughton Town Council meeting recently.
The issue of youths causing problems was raised by Cllr David Wilkinson.
Westhoughton experienced a spree of youth-related antisocial behaviour in February, which focused on the town centre.
Westhoughton McDonald's (Image: Jack Tooth)
Cllr Wilkinson said: "Can I just ask about two locations that do pop up? Around Sainsbury's, where I think there was criminal damage, and McDonald's, which pops up and then goes, and pops up and then goes."
Sgt Robertson responded: "Sainsbury's was just a one-off a drunk person decided to launch something through the window, so he's been dealt with for damages.
"He wasn't stealing anything, he was just some drunken person.
"But McDonald's is a problem - it doesn't matter where you go in the country. It's a problem because of the food, free Wi-Fi, and they're inevitably all in the town centre.
"We're trying to sit down with the franchise owners. I sat down with the manager, and I've even managed to get hold of the McDonald's antisocial behaviour policy.
"I'll be honest, it's fantastic - I read it and went 'if they even implemented half of this it would resolve so many problems.'
"Simple things like playing classical music - it's brilliant, young people don't listen to that at all.
With the rise of digital purchasing, the size of the counters has reduced, meaning there is more of a barrier between staff and customers (Image: Martini)
"These are things that work. But to be honest, the new McDonald's here where they've done the refurb - it's like they've built a wall between the staff and customers. They don't see them, so there's no engagement or interaction, and things end up happening too late.
"We're trying to with them - and we do - and and it eases off, but then obviously it's right up again.
"To manage everyone's expectations, it's going to be an ongoing thing - we're going to be able to whack-a-mole it once but we'll just have to keep doing it."
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