Rise in anti-social behaviour in Cramlington blamed on 'large gatherings' of youths

Officers from Northumbria Police revealed there have been 418 incidents of anti-social behaviour since the start of the year.

The Cramlington neighbourhood area also includes Seaton Valley, but the majority of incidents were in the town itself.

Neighbourhood Inspector Jonathan Caisley, at a meeting of the Cramlington, Bedlington and Seaton Valley Local Area Committee, revealed that many of the issues involved teenagers.

He said: “For 2023, we are up on previous years for anti-social behaviour. We have particular hotspots on a weekend, particularly on a Friday night. The main issue is with young people under the age of 18.

“There are very little reports from pubs or anything other than large groups of young people gathering. Problems drop right off after 10pm.

“We saw a spike early this year in February, with stones being thrown at taxis and disorder of that type. We got funding from the Violence Reduction Unit to put on extra patrols, which had a significant impact.

“Numbers fell until May when we started to see an increase again, particularly around the Manor Walks Shopping Centre. We got funding from the Home Office for extra patrols.

“We’ve seen an increase in the seriousness of the behaviour from young people. It has changed recently and has crossed over into criminal activity – causing damage, confronting security and targeting people trying to do their shopping in Manor Walks.”

Insp Caisley said police were taking action with young people – 17 had been referred to the youth justice service for intervention work in order to prevent them from getting “further involved in crime”. A total of 28 arrests of young people had been made, although it was pointed out that some of these involved the same people.

In addition, officers had made 76 dispersal notices, which give them additional powers to break up large groups.

Despite the rise, Coun Wayne Daley, Cramlington North, said: “This is a minority of young people. I don’t want people to go away thinking there is thousands of kids rampaging around Cramlington because that is not the case.

“The fact that issues stop around 10pm shows me that these people have a curfew, and that they have got families and there is some kind of rules. Some of these young people have inadvertently got in with the wrong crowd.

“We need to get a message out to parents to make sure that your kids aren’t in with the wrong crowd. Some of these minority of kids can cause a disproportionate impact on the majority.”

Coun Mark Swinburn, who represents the Cramlington Village ward, added that he believed some of the issues were caused by youngsters from outside the town itself.

Insp Caisley confirmed that youths come from “all over” because Cramlington is “nice”.

He added: “They like it there. They feel safe in Cramlington which is great, but we need to make sure that when they come to Cramlington their behaviour isn’t escalating.”