Yob culture (From Barry And District News)

Yob culture

I WAS interested to read the correspondence in your paper regarding the recent unruly behaviour at Romilly Park.

I have lived next to the park for many years and I have witnessed at first hand generations of young people behaving badly in and around the area.

There are hotspots in the calendar such as bonfire night and Hallowe"en, but probably the worst time is now as the nights get lighter stretching into the summer.

I"ve seen lots of things happen there, from mindless acts of vandalism causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to the situation two Fridays ago at around 10.30pm, where there were in excess of 100 people fighting with each other near the bottom of the Grove.

I notice that one of your correspondents accuses the residents here of denying the privilege of using the park to the youngsters in the community.

This is plainly wrong.

The park is one of the finest places in the town and needs to be protected.

There is a place there for everyone from the very young to the very old to enjoy themselves, and no-one would deny them that right, but surely there should be no place for the gangs of mindless yobs whose grossly offensive behaviour causes offence to the people in the local community.

Over the last bank holiday weekend on the Friday and Saturday night I had to challenge young people no more than 14 or 15 years old who were drinking from cans and had decided to urinate on my front wall and then my drive late in the evening.

As I said my family and our neighbours have been putting up with this rubbish for years and it"s time something was done to permanently put a stop to it.

Can I suggest that by-laws are passed to restrict the possession of alcohol in the park at any time except for special events and also to prohibit access to the park after the hours of darkness.

Coming back to your correspondence.

I always find it depressing when a parent"s first instinct is to spring to the defence of their child when there is clearly a problem that needs to be addressed.

Let"s not pander to the minority here, let"s try and do the right thing.

Name and address

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