POLICE are stepping up their efforts to combat anti-social behaviour after a series of incidents in Barrow town centre.

This includes at Saturday’s Christmas Lights Switch-On where PCSOs and the Barrow Proactive Team worked with event organisers to stop a small group of youths throwing eggs and flour off the rooftop car park onto the crowd below.

To manage the situation, police and event marshals had to close down access to all of the rooftop car parks except one and monitored any further access throughout the evening.

Later in the evening there was another incident where patrols had to move to McDonald’s on Dalton Road where a large group of youths were congregating. They remained in the area for three hours to prevent anti social behaviour occurring.

A Section 34 dispersal notice was granted, and five youths were issued with dispersal orders to leave the town centre during this time.

As a result, Barrow Police will be running hotspot patrols around Hindpool and Salthouse in Barrow.

When asked why there is more of a concentration of hotspots in the centre of Barrow, Sergeant Sara Seath said: “The night-time economy which is concentrated in Barrow town centre generates a large proportion of anti social behaviour (ASB) logs.

“It is also a densely populated area, which can lead to an increase in occurrence/reporting of ASB.

“In addition, it is a gathering place for youths who want somewhere to socialise.

“When there is such a large gathering it can get rowdy and lead to acts of ASB.

“Hotspot policing has been highlighted by the College of Policing in the Neighbourhood Policing guidelines as an effective tool to reduce crime and ASB.

“By having these patrols we hope to provide reassurance to the community that we are targeting our resources in the right area, resulting in a reduction of ASB.”