Residents agreed to look at providing more facilities for village youngsters after speaking with police officers.

At a meeting called by Great Notley Parish Council at Great Notley community centre on Friday night, Insp Moira Owers, section commander for Braintree, was joined by Insp Mark Harman, of Bocking Traffic Police, and Insp Mike Smith, operations manager for Braintree and Uttlesford.

Paul Sterland, vice chairman of Great Notley Parish Council, began the meeting by asking what could be done about an ongoing problem of youngsters on village streets.

Insp Owers said: "You'll never get away from young people standing on street corners but we work to alleviate some of the poor behaviour."

She added: "In the last 12 months only seven offences of criminal damage have been reported in Great Notley. If we don't know about it, we can't do anything about it so I would urge people to report all incidents."

Kerry Mansfield, a village resident, said: "Given the lack of facilities for young people in the parish, it's not wrong for the youngsters to be in a public place together."

Insp Owers replied: "There is a lack of facilities for young people across the district, but there is an awful lot of work going on the background by bodies such as the Braintree youth partnership.

"But the fact remains the facilities cannot be put in place unless there is the money available."

Betty Barltrop, chairman of Great Notley Parish Council, said: "We can't have facilities unless we pay for them.

"What we need to ask is do we want this happen and do we want to get the children off the streets."

Residents supported Great Notley Parish Council in their move to look at providing better facilities for village youngsters.

Published Monday, April 8, 2002