Antisocial behaviour

I would like to report a serious trend in antisocial behaviour and criminality. Last Friday, my son and his friends (all aged 12) were at the Emsworth Recreation ground skate park. There were about a dozen teenagers there, hanging around, vaping and occupying the ramps but not using them for their intended use. The teenagers were using foul language, and started physically assaulting my son. Two of them shoved him and demanded that he hand over his scooter. In fear for his safety, he complied; it was only some fifteen minutes later that an adult told them to return the scooter, and they reluctantly did so. This is not an isolated incident. The same group of teenagers is often found congregating in that area and are behaving antisocially and threatening to our children. They smoke drugs. Last year, they lit a fire; they also damaged the ramps, making one of them dangerous. I do not think it is right that our children now feel too scared to use the skate park for its intended purpose. Prevention is so much cheaper and more effective than cure and I urge you to arrange for patrol visits and to engage with the teenagers to try to put a stop to this behaviour. It’s important that you do so before someone gets hurt.