Making an impact
Changing communities

Problem-solving approaches with young people

Alsager Youth Forum (Pizza and Cola focus group) came about as an alternative solution to a number of complaints received by the local Police Community Action Team. The complaints related to a group of young people who were seen to be causing a nuisance skateboarding in the local Civic Centre car park in the evenings and at weekends. Some of this group had also been skateboarding in other inappropriate places. The Community Action Team PC and PCSO started to work with this group to address the issue. The relationship which the PC and Community Support Officer built up with this group resulted in 17 young people attending the next Police Sector meeting to make their concerns known. The local member for the Police Authority attended the meeting, together with the Community Inspector

The key message from these and later discussions was that the skateboarders wanted somewhere safe to skate. The Skateboarders wanted to know why they could not use a facility, which is mostly vacant out of working hours, and which is good for their purposes.

Working together, the idea of a forum with skateboarders and other young people was agreed. The forum was designed to gather ideas and information which could be used to present a case to local authorities and other funding partners. In advance of this meeting, the Community Inspector checked for available funding sources with partner agencies to make sure that at least some funding would be available to meet potential requests.

The focus group of 26 young people was held at the Alsager Civic Centre. One Police Authority Staff member, the PC and the Community Action Team CSO worked with the group. Attendance was limited to this group as it was felt that outsiders who were not known to the young people might inhibit their responses.

The discussion revealed that young people did not use the existing skateboarding facility because they did not feel safe, since the ramp was in a dark corner of the park and was often vandalised. The young people used the car park because it is well lit, has CCTV and also serves as a walkway, and therefore other people are in the vicinity. The skateboarders recognised that they were seen as a nuisance or even threatening to other people, particularly those over age 65. They felt that this was mainly because older people did not understand what they were doing. It was suggested that a one-day skateboarding event could be held in the car park to address this issue.

The one-day event was organised by the original working group and other skateboarders, together with the Community Action Team. Congleton Borough Council helped with staff from their leisure programme and with insurance cover and advice about running a public event for young people. Cheshire County Council Highways Department made it possible to use the car park space. Dane Housing, the local social housing provider, sponsored the hire of skateboarding ramps and encouraged their staff to assist the event organisers.

From 10am until 4pm the back part of the car park in Alsager buzzed with over 100 skateboarders showing their moves to surprised shoppers. Comments were sought from the people moving through the car park and from people in the vicinity. The feedback was almost unanimously positive, only one person complained and that was about the noise from the music.