Marlow resident claims not enough done to combat yobs

A trial dispersal zone ran from March to November around Gunthorpe Road to deter yobs, giving police powers to ban troublemakers from certain streets or face arrest.

But this has now ended. A 34-year-old woman, who wished to be unnamed for fear of reprisals, claims householders' lives are still badly blighted by the problems.

The Gunthorpe Road resident said: "It is very common for the children to take the mickey out of the officers and, even when we had the dispersal order in place, all they did was to run away and group in another area.

"The kids keep getting arrested for various offences around the area, but they never go to court and they now think they can get away with anything."

She said the group of youths causing chaos in the area is made of around 15 teenagers.

Most recently one of them has in fact used a picture of himself and others surrounding an officer on the street and showing him the finger as his Facebook profile picture.

"It is not uncommon to see them behaving like that and most parents are not bothered and probably prefer to have them out on the street," said the resident.

"The problem is that the little ones look up to the older ones and want to copy them."

Inspector Ray Wilks reassured residents that officers were still focusing their efforts on the issue.

He said: "The dispersal order cannot be given again under the law, but we are still concentrated in this problem and doing something about it.

"Facebook pictures can manipulated and I would not generalise this behaviour.

"If they break the law, they are arrested and we have plans in place.

"We cannot arrested them for being disrespectful to a police officer, but we can arrest them for anti-social behaviour.

"Several cases have been dealt with and where there is evidence there to use we do."

Inspector Wilks added that everybody over ten years old can be charged for their crimes.