TIME reveals some disturbing home truths; 27% of British 15-year-olds have been drunk 20 or more times and 35% have used cannabis in the last 12 months, figures that will not surprise people who so regularly encounter groups of underage drunks in their neighbourhoods. If the current crisis of adolescence is not tackled we may see more tragedies like that of Garry Newlove, the 47-year-old father who last year was kicked to death outside his home in Warrington by a gang of drunken youths after he tried to stop them vandalising his wife’s car. The “scourge of feral youngsters” – as identified by the Sun newspaper – is also being felt in suburban and rural areas where local communities fight to keep control of their young people.
One such community is in the Ribble Valley, an idyllic cluster of small towns and villages in Lancashire, where police recently piloted an initiative aimed at underage street drinkers. As part of the government’s Confiscation of Alcohol Campaign, officers in Clitheroe used new alcohol testing kits to target suspicious soft drinks bottles carried by teenagers during the month-long blitz in February and large amounts of beer and cider were seized. But why pilot such a scheme in sleepy market town like Clitheroe, and what impact has it had on local youngsters? Trinity Youth and Community Centre is where I found my answers. The centre works closely with the local community, government, police and schools and has provided essential services for young people since 1972. While the pool table, tuck shop, sports hall and music room are understandably popular among youth club members, Trinity also provides a curriculum of sorts that covers career advice and drug and sex education. Simon Whipp, the youth leader is proudly evangelistic about his work. He explains; “we have an impact of six hours a week here on their lives but they learn a lot from it.”
Simon, 32, has worked with young people for ten years, five of which have been at Trinity. He says many people are unaware of the social problems that exist in Clitheroe, that so many of the young people he sees are from unstable families;
“They don’t understand that there is compassion and there is love and affection and things like that which we tend to show them a little bit of. It’s nice having male and female workers here as well because they see that we show each other respect whereas at home dad won’t show mum respect and mum won’t show dad respect,” Says Simon.
While Simon admits underage drinking is a problem in Clitheroe he has mixed feelings about February’s police blitz which he thinks only drove youths away from the town’s parks towards the more dangerous rivers and quarries in the area. He also thinks the approach was perhaps too hard-line; “fair enough, approach them, confiscate their alcohol but arresting them and things like that to me is just wildly absurd,” a feeling that was echoed by some of the kids I spoke to at Trinity. Max, 14, tells me about an occasion when the police targeted him and his friends, some of who were drinking alcohol in Clitheroe Castle grounds. He says some people were restrained unnecessarily when they refused to cooperate; “I know there’s an age limit for a reason but you’ve got to realise that if there’s a law kids just want to break it just to say, “I’m well hard I can drink in the streets””.
Trinity was the right place to go for proof that underage drinkers are a problem even in more rural areas. A heated argument between a 14-year-old girl and an older boy about a stolen mobile phone leads Simon to confide in me that he had confiscated a large bottle of cider from the girl. And this is what he calls a “quiet night”. When I ask Max whether the girl is a regular youth club member he seems unconcerned by her behaviour; “yeah she’s alright,” he shrugs. The loud dance music pumping from the ‘disco’ room may not be to everyone’s taste but it really draws the youngsters to the youth centre
“One of the main reasons for having youth clubs is to provide an environment, not simply to take them off the streets but to give them an environment where they can be shown that you don’t have to drink to have a good time and they can develop skills outside getting drunk,” explains Simon. “I know we shouldn’t have them in if they’re in any kind of state but if they’ve had a small amount to drink or if they’ve been smoking a bit little of cannabis they tend to come in and the room fills up and everybody dances. But the actual lads who are doing the music and the MC-ing tend to stay sober because they take a lot of pride in what they’re doing.”
Simon seems confident that in Clitheroe at least, underage drinking is controllable and doesn’t escalate into violence and crime, he tells me how some of the boys can be aggressive but that it’s only what they have learned at home. “I think people are becoming more aware and less tolerant,” he says; “I don’t think the behaviour is actually getting worse”. In a small town it is understandable that the local press will pounce on minor crime and disorder in order to fill their pages, Simon’s recent examples being, “a bloke who’d been caught flashing up at Spring Wood and we had four cakes stolen from the sandwich shop.” “It’s not stabbing or shooting or anything like that”.
The question on Britain’s lips is ‘how can we bring our badly behaved children under control?’ and part of the solution lies here in Clitheroe. Youth services can clearly provide an environment where kids feel comfortable and valued, where they can be educated and prepared for adult life. The most rewarding part of Simon’s job is “seeing a young person succeed”.
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