ASBO warning
Thursday, 22 July 2010
ANTRIM Council is preparing to play hard ball with the teenage thugs who have been 'running riot' in their state-of-the-art park on Stiles Way.
Civic leaders had hoped that the £500,000 facility on the fringes of the Steeple estate would finally answer the prayers of residents who had patiently waited for decades for a park of their own. The reality, however, was very different.
Within days public faith was dented with reports of attacks on children, of abusive mobs chasing young mothers and of open-air drinking and intimidation.
Now the Council has admitted that it has lost control of the park after tearaway teens refused to leave, forcing staff to retreat and leave the play area at the mercy of openly hostile gangs.
Within hours of the Antrim Guardian blowing the whistle on its inability to put valuable public property under lock and key, a private security company was hired to do the honours - but a Council Director confirmed that this is just one of a raft of measures designed to reclaim the park and restore confidence. Geraldine Girvan also confirmed that, albeit 'reluctantly', Antrim Council is poised to use legal powers to restore order.
In a top level briefing with concerned councillors, she revealed that Council chiefs, the PSNI and the recently convened Anti-social Behaviour Forum had discussed the prospect of using ASBOs as a key weapon in the war against lawlessness.
It would be the first time the Orders have been used in this way in Antrim, but Council insiders say the threat is a sign of how seriously the Civic Centre is taking the disturbances less than a mile from their HQ.
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