Provide Better Facilities for Young People in Southminster.

We, the undersigned, are concerned that, because there are few facilities for young people in Southminster, they are congregating around the junction of the footpath between New Moor Crescent and Station Road, and the car park for Priors' Court (a sheltered housing development administered by Colne Housing).

Most of these young people are polite and move on when asked, but even they can be intimidating to lone pensioners, some of whom will not use the footpath at all.

Other young people are out of a different mould. They can be abusive and threatening, and have vandalised fences and street furniture.

We believe that, in the short term, CCTV cameras around the affected area would discourage all groups and we hope this can be expedited as soon as humanly possible.

In the medium term, more frequent patrols by Police, CPS and Rangers, around known hotspots, would discourage them further. Visits to schools by any (or all) of the aforementioned officers, perhaps including one or two of the affected residents, may help all the young people to understand how intimidating their presence can be.

In the longer term, we believe the solution is to provide an informal venue within Southminster centre (ideally shop premises) which would give our young villagers somewhere warm and dry to go, like a coffee bar of olden times or an alcohol-free pub, to be manned by volunteers from the end of the school day to, say, 22:00.

If nothing is done, we believe the situation will only get worse, given the amount of new development around the village, and the consequential (further) strain on infrastructure.