REPORTS of nuisance behaviour outside a Burton supermarket have fallen by more than 70 per cent following work by neighbourhood police and their partners.
Customers using the Morrisons store off Wellington Road complained they felt intimidated by a group of up to 20 young people who were hanging around the car park.
Complaints included loud and aggressive behaviour, youngsters playing with trolleys and going into the store in large groups.
Police recorded more than 50 complaints of anti-social behaviour (ASB) outside the store in the first eight months of last year.
After sending out high visibility police patrols, speaking with parents of nuisance youngsters and working with local partnerships, police report that complaints are down by 70 per cent on the same period from last year.
Burton neighbourhood policing commander, Inspector Steve Burton, said: “Nuisance behaviour dropped sharply following the concerted efforts of police, partners and storemanagers.
“Working together, we identified the problem and then set about engaging with the young people.
“Part of the solution was finding alternative, positive things for them to occupy their time. We also worked to make them understand the effect their nuisance behaviour had on customers and people living nearby and that the car park is not a play area.
“In a small number of cases, acceptable behaviour contracts were agreed with the youngsters and their parents that have proved successful in changing and improving an individual’s behaviour.”
Ian Webster, Morrisons’ Burton store general manager, said: “The safety of our customers and colleagues is of paramount importance to Morrisons and we are delighted to see such a dramatic drop in the number of nuisance behaviour incidents in the area outside the store.
“By working together with the local police and parish councillors we have identified the source of the anti-social behaviour and provided a solution that has made a huge impact and has seen the number of nuisance incidents drop significantly.”
