Welcome praise for children’s behaviour (From Knutsford Guardian)
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Welcome praise for children’s behaviour
2:30pm Friday 2nd November 2012 in News
By James Wilson
Parents and children with PCSO Jenny Regan, second from right, and Welcome operations manager Marie Fox, right n124570
CHILDREN in Longridge have been praised by police for their behaviour after the area’s popular community centre helped them to keep busy during the summer months.
Knutsford Police has hailed the work carried out by The Welcome after recording a lower number of anti-social incidents committed by youngsters this year.
The centre held a series of days out for children aged between 12 and 16 including canoeing, camping tips, fishing excursions and a visit to Alton Towers.
Marie Fox, operations manager at The Welcome, said she had noticed an improvement in the children as a result of staging the activities.
“It just shows that we are getting it right and the kids loved it,” she said.
“We’ve been working very closely with the Cheshire East Youth Team, and without them we wouldn’t have been able to do half of what we have done.
“As well as the trips we’ve done things in house as well like drama and dancing for those kids who couldn’t go on the trip.
“I noticed last year that the youths were hanging around and being a nuisance by kicking their football near the newsagent. I was trying to move them on but we haven’t had that this summer.”
Marie said the money from Cheshire East Council had meant the trips could take place.
“We’ve kept them off the streets and PCSO Jenny Regan has said the call out rate has been the lowest since she started covering the estate three years ago,” she said.
“We haven’t had the funds to do that in the past, but getting the funds from Cheshire East Council allowed us to do everything.”
PCSO Jenny Regan said the number of instances of anti-social behaviour had fallen year on year, and praised The Welcome for driving the figures down.
“Some of that we can put down to pro-active policing, but I’m aware of the great work they have done at The Welcome,” she said.
“They have the youth club up and running, and I attribute the work they have done to the reduction in the number of call-outs we’ve had.”
