Police use football to help tackle anti-social behaviour in Derbyshire town

After receiving reports from residents about anti-social behaviour, the Shirebrook Safer Neighbourhood Team decided to listen to young people to identify the causes of these kinds of activities.

A Shirebrook SNT spokesperson said that, after engaging with young people in the area, they highlighted three issues that were contributing to such behaviour in the town. Officers were told that having nowhere to go when the weather is poor, a lack of after-school activities and having no youth club were leading to anti-social activity.

In a bid to resolve some of these problems, the SNT staged a football match on Tuesday, December 14 at the Shirebrook Leisure Centre, in collaboration with Bolsover District Council and Shirebrook Town Council.

The SNT spokesperson said: “There was a great turn out and we managed to educate the young persons on how their behaviour is having a detrimental affect on the community. After the game we demonstrated our kit and equipment and had a question and answer session, with some very funny questions.”

“At the end of the event, they helped us to clean up and we left the facility better than we found it. We received no calls for service in regards to anti-social behaviour last night after the event.

“We are hoping for this to be a regular occurrence and are open to suggestions for future events. We are looking at local businesses to see how they can help.”