By Mike Jones
Its an age old problem: Youths, teenagers, hoodies (call them what you like) but a minority can cause trouble. After months of wanton vandalism, abuse, graffiti and just sheer nuisance value, the people of Stanford le Hope are getting near the end of their tether
Reverend John Guest pulled together all sorts of people from various steering groups, education, youth leaders, teachers and police and met in the much attacked Hardie Hall.
These people had suffered enough and it was time to act. The emphasis was on prevention rather than cure and the analogy of a tennis racket with no strings was used rather effectively.
There are never any magic wand solutions but this group did actually leave the meeting with some positive goals. Councillors Terry Hipsey and Eddie Hardiman listened in carefully and a variety of good ideas were discussed.
Yourthurrock will go back to Hardie Hall in six months time and see if there has been a change.
A word of thanks to Cllr Hipsey for informing YourThurrock regarding the meeting.
Comment
The only people absent today were the offending groups who of course would not be seen within in a mile of the place in daylight or be associated with the powers who were there. Pity because if these two groups got together then a solution might not be so far away.
It seems incredible that they fall under the umbrella of “there’s nothing to do” when actually there is plenty to do as we have seen on this site and across the borough.
Their parents and grandparents didn’t have the media explosion at their fingertips like they do and I suspect demands for bigger skateboard parks ,cinemas state of the art sports facilities may fall on unsympathetic ears.
