Police target under-age drinkers

Reporter: JANICE BARKER
Date online: 07 June 2010

Police and youth workers are taking part in a seven-week operation to combat youth nuisance and underage drinking in Hollinwood and Failsworth.

Operation Rumble targets known hot spots along Hollins Road, in local parks and at stores and off licences where the youngsters have been gathering.

Officers from the Challenge and Support team, as well as youth workers, and Oldham Council’s park security staff, aim to discourage large groups from intimidating residents and shoppers, as well as getting to know the young teenagers and diverting them to better activities.

The Chronicle accompanied Sgt Paul Archer and PC Jason Williams on Friday night, when the evening began with a seizure of beer from a group of under-age drinkers.

They also visited Hardman Lane which has become a hot spot for youngsters because the road under the old railway bridge is closed off to cars for Metrolink work, and was becoming a meeting ground for large gangs.

A mobile police station is now sited there to reassure local residents and shopkeepers.

They also checked local off-licences where youths try to persuade older shoppers to buy them alcohol, and visited the Tesco supermarket in Failsworth, where groups also congregate in the car park. Sgt Archer said the groups are often swelled by youths from Moston and Newton Heath.

He said: “We try to get to know them, and many are reasonable until they get alcohol.”

PC Williams added: “I’ve had a lad of 16 who had alcohol confiscated, went back into the off-licence, demanded they give him free alcohol, caused a stir, and got racially abusive when they refused him, so he was arrested.”

Sgt Archer added: “Most weeks we confiscate large amounts of lager but also bottles of vodka. I’ve taken alcohol off 13-year-olds. Girls are usually the worst for being incapable after drink.”

But they say rain is the best policeman — and a two-hour deluge on Friday meant it was the quietest night for weeks.

After the first seizure of beer, the officers did not have any more reports of under-age drinking.

One local off licence, Ziggy’s, has had its licence suspended for selling to under-age drinkers.

Officers sometimes travel in plain clothes on buses with the youngsters to spot where they are gathering, a tactic which has been used recently to stop large gangs gathering in Uppermill and Greenfield.

Park security staff are also extra vigilant on Friday nights, and there has been a permanent presence in Copster Park since vandals struck several weeks ago.