POLICE have stressed that Brampton is a safe place to live, despite one teenager who is a persistent offender.

Addressing concerns raised by the parish council Sergeant Scott Adams, neighbourhood policing sergeant for Brampton and the west of Carlisle, says there have been fewer reports of anti-social behaviour than there were at the beginning of last year.

In December and January police received a total of eight reports of anti-social behaviour, four in each month.

Compared with the beginning of last year the number of reports has fallen. In March 2018 there was a spike of 23 reports.

But in the 13 months up to the end of January one individual was responsible for 27 incidents - half of all incidents of youth-related anti-social behaviour reported to police during that time.

This individual is subject to a criminal behaviour order, which prohibits him from entering the town centre, in particular the Co-op, and also bans him from contacting a named person who was the victim of harassment.

“It’s like everything else, we can only deal with what is actually put in front of us,” said Sergeant Adams.

“In the grand scheme of things, there are other areas of Carlisle where we get that on a nightly basis.

“There is one person that is our main issue.

He continued: “We have a proactive team. If there are issues in Brampton that do become like they did at one stage last year, those officers will be tasked to deal with Brampton, which they did in March last year.

“If people give us the evidence we will progress it and bring people to justice but we can only do that with the support of the public."

Sergeant Adams proposed Brampton adopts a similar scheme to Longtown’s Community Alcohol Partnership which aims to tackle underage drinking and antisocial behaviour.

He wants to establish provision that will divert young people who are on the periphery and then those causing the main issues can be targeted effectively.

He said Brampton Community Centre was on board but has had to pull youth provision because it was unable to access funding.

The parish council was asked to fund £5,000, which could then be matched funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner, to create youth provision for 12 to 18months.

“We are saying why should we prosecute 13 and 14 year-old kids for doing something wrong once in their life, which then affects them for the rest of their lives. We should be diverting them. The parish council needs to provide for its community,” said Sergeant Adams.

“There are some we should be prosecuting but there are a lot more we shouldn’t be and criminality isn’t the right way for them.”

But parish council chairman David Moorat did not agree and will not part-fund such provision.

He said: “The parish council is seriously concerned about the lack of anything positive happening with the perpetrators of anti-social behaviour.

“The parish council doesn’t believe that by providing some diversionary opportunities for the youths, that the five or six perpetrators will wish to enter that. They are more likely to cause disturbance when that happens.

“What the parish council is concerned about is prosecution.”

Sergeant Adams has accused Mr Moorat of “scaremongering” parishioners. “I feel he is giving a negative impact in Brampton,” he said. “Yes, there are a group of kids that are causing issues which we are trying to deal with and I’m asking for the support of the public to try and do that.

“In general Brampton is a lovely town with very low crime rates and is a very nice place to live.

"If people do have any complaints I would ask them to ring us up.”