By Julie Waters
ANTI-social behaviour and street fights in Bangor city centre have sparked a call for the PSNI Chief Constable to provide more police officers for the borough.
Ards and North Down Council has written to Chief Constable Jon Boucher seeking more resources in the wake of recent teen trouble in recent weeks in the city.
At a recent council meeting there was unanimous support for a motion from Bangor councillor Jennifer Gilmour calling on Mr Boucher to provide more officers for the borough’s police commander Superintendent Johnston McDowell.
The local authority’s bid for more police resources comes after ongoing disturbances in the city centre, with large gangs of youths brawling in High Street and Quay Street in the recent good weather.
The disturbances came just weeks after the violent attack on K9 Search and Rescue volunteer Ryan Gray and his dog Max, as well as the vandalism of local businesses by young people.
Adele Faulkner, the council’s director of Active and Healthy Communities, explained a meeting of the borough’s Beaches and Coastal Resource Planning Group had been held in a bid to address concerns ahead of the May Day bank holiday weekend.
She said representatives including Translink, the PSNI, the Community Safety Team, Street Pastors, the YMCA and the Neighbourhood Environment Team had a plan in place which included ‘interventions’ on transport links into the city.
Mrs Gilmour welcomed this ‘collective approach’ but highlighted the ‘lack of police resources’ available to deal with ongoing incidents.
“I think this would provide support for the local police who can only be in so many places at the one time,” said the Bangor West councillor and former mayor.
Her concerns were echoed by another former mayor, Alistair Cathcart, who criticised the ‘unacceptable’ recent outbreaks of anti-social behaviour.
“When there is good weather, Bangor and seaside towns are a destination of choice but Bangor is a destination for underage drinking and anti-social behaviour,” he said.
The Bangor Central councillor said there needed to be a greater police presence and a multi-agency presence within areas such as train stations.
He praised the Street Pastors who had ‘helped those who were vulnerable’ and ‘lifted 100 bottles of alcohol and lots of nitrous oxide bottles which is deeply concerning’.
Said Mr Cathcart: “We want everyone to enjoy our borough but it has to be done in a responsible manner.”
Praising local police, he said: “We do have excellent officers but we need more of them.”
Ulster Unionist councillor Pete Wray, said: “The hard truth is we do want more police on the streets and that comes with more resources. I will support District Commander Johnston McDowell in any request he makes.”
However, Mr Wray, who is the chair of the Ards and North Down Policing Community and Safety Partnership said tackling the anti-social behaviour problem was not a solely a police responsibility.
The Ards peninsula councillor said: ‘Carers and parents have a role to play. They need to know where their children are and if they are engaged in risk taking behaviour.”
He added that education programmes in schools are also needed.
Mr Wray said the borough faced similar anti-social behaviour problems last year and ‘we need less meetings and more sustained funding and resources to tackle the problem.”
Councillor Wesley Irvine said that ‘unfortunately’ there had been a ‘reoccurrence of major anti-social behaviour which led to violence which we don’t want to see’. The Bangor Central councillor said this showed the ‘folly’ of closing Bangor police station to the general public.
Green Party councillor Lauren Kendall said it would be ‘helpful’ if councillors were represented in the multi-agency meetings and suggestive parties could nominate representatives to attend.
