Crackdown on park youbs (From South Wales Guardian)

Crackdown on park youbs

8:00am Sunday 14th October 2012 in Ammanford news

POLICE are launching a crackdown on anti-social behaviour in Ammanford Park, town councillors have been told.

County councillor Deian Harries revealed the recreation ground was being targeted by enforcement officers “after some near misses” involving dog mess and young children playing sport.

“Two parks in Ammanford which are attracting quite a bit of anti-social behaviour are Ammanford Park and the new Pantyffynnon Park,” he said.

“Ammanford Park was targeted with graffiti on the new park benches, which have been cleaned a bit, but have been revandalised over the weekend.

“I will be speaking to Community Officer Rob Chapman to see what is the best way forward and maybe setting up a neighbourhood watch scheme to keep an eye on problematic areas.”

Cllr Harries added that he had also contacted the authorities about underage drinking in the park following “the carnage”

left there over the weekend.

Cllr Wendy Evans complained that groups of young people were congregating in Quay Street on Saturday afternoons before heading to the park and dropping litter.

“The mess in the park on Saturday was disgusting - and there are bins there,” she said.

“These youngsters who leave litter on the floor clearly need educating.”

Pc Kevin Jones confirmed that anti-social behaviour in Ammanford Park had been designated a priority at a recent Pact meeting, but felt that introducing dispersal orders - giving police powers to split up groups of three youngsters or more - would be too drastic a step.

“We don’t want to start putting our names to those kind of orders here in Ammanford,” he added.