BUSINESS owners in Downpatrick have revealed that some members of staff have been followed home by unruly teenagers who are terrorising the town centre with their behaviour.
The worrying revelation came during a meeting held last week to discuss mounting concern about increasing anti-social behaviour in St Patrick’s Square, the Grove shopping centre area and other parts of the town.
Within 24 hours of last week’s meeting concluding, a firework was thrown at a customer as he left a hot food bar in St Patrick’s Square, narrowly missing him.
Business owners fear someone is going to have to be seriously injured or worse before the ongoing trouble is addressed.
They say the anti-social behaviour cannot be allowed to continue in the area, or in any other part of Downpatrick, and insist there must be immediate action to be bring the trouble to an end.
Last week’s meeting between local police, business owners and elected representatives was organised by Downpatrick councillor Cadogan Enright, who has revealed there were a number of frank exchanges, with all those in attendance describing the talks as “worthwhile”.
He also confirmed another session involving the parties is due to be held in mid-November.
A businessman said it was “entirely unsatisfactory” that people who were trying to do a day’s work should be terrorised by 14 and 15 year-old children operating outside the control of their parents and the police.
“It is now getting difficult to recruit staff in Downpatrick town centre,” he revealed.
“We do not have these problems in Newcastle or Ardglass. Self-employed retailers pay tax and rates in an expectation that the government and Newry, Mourne and Down Council will ensure that the environment in our town centres is suitable for business and attractive to customers. We expect this situation to be turned around rapidly and not deteriorate further.”
During the meeting, business owners complained about having their staff harassed and having to close early, losing trade due to anti-social behaviour.
Vehicles in the car park at the rear of the Grove shopping centre have been damaged, with business owners and local residents’ group representatives expressing concern that police were not doing more to help bring about prosecutions.
Residents’ group members complained that they could no longer let their children play near the Grove or St Patrick’s Square, an area which they argued should be a major attraction in the town for adults and children alike.
Fears were also expressed that this part of Downpatrick was now becoming “out of bounds for the decent people in the town” in the evenings.
Cllr Enright said local police welcomed the opportunity to listen first-hand to what businesses and residents’ associations had to say and agreed to meet met with them again next month to track progress in dealing with these issues.
He also thanked South Down MLA Colin McGrath for attending the meeting and fellow MLA Emma Rogan for sending her apologies and confirming she will be at the November meeting.
“It was clear that senior police officers were not aware of the scale of the problems in the town over the past nine months,” Cllr Enright said.
“Statistics of reported crime did not reflect what was going on, with business owners surprised at the low number of prosecutions.
“There appears to be a systemic problem in dealing with youth offending in the Public Prosecutions Service which insists on up to five repetitions of so-called ‘youth engagement’ by the police before considering bringing forward a prosecution.”
Cllr Enright suggested this left some of the worst culprits with little respect for or fear of the police.
He confirmed that MLAs have been asked to raise this particular issue with the PPS, alongside concerns of people waiting up to 20 minutes to get through on the PSNI’s 101 number to report incidents.
He said concern was also expressed about how reports of assaults, vandalism and intimidation were followed though, with some business owners keen for police to search young people whom they suspect of carrying fireworks.
He added: “There was also criticism of the ‘invisibility’ of Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s community safety wardens, with some suggestions that robust action against anti-social behaviour issues at the Model Farm area may have been partly responsible for transferring the trouble to the town centre.”