Youth workers to quiz young

Youth workers are to go on to the streets of Uckfield to try to find ways of occupying problem groups of youngsters.

Their conclusions will go before a forum of organisations pledged to work together to provide more for young people to do.

'Our aim is to come up with a medium term and long term strategy to divert the youth of Uckfield away from what is perceived to be anti-social behaviour, said PC Keith Mates, police schools liaison officer.

Representatives of most statutory bodies working in the town are involved, including the police, youth services, town council, youth workers and the Uckfield Youth Trust. They met on Friday to decide how to proceed.

The meeting was chaired by newly appointed youth manager Jack Sephton, whose post is being funded by the town s community college.

He told the Express that the youth service would go on to the streets after Christmas with the aim of establishing the needs of young people by Easter and then putting forward a plan.

Many ideas were put forward at Friday s meeting but Mr Sephton said that in his experience adult views on the needs of young people were usually 'way out of line with what was actually wanted and that was why they were going out to talk to the young people themselves.

PC Mates said there had been some success about four years ago in stopping youths congregating on residential estates, particularly in the area of the Manor Park shops, when the youth trust opened its drop-in centre.

But the group of youngsters now congregating in the Tesco, Civic Centre, McDonald s area were not going to the drop-in centre because they wanted to drink and drinking was not allowed there.

'This means we now have to look at the problem slightly differently. We certainly don t want them chased out of town and back on to residential estates to affect the quality of life of residents. At the moment this tends to be a problem for commercial premises in the town but as unpleasant as that might be it has got to be better than having it on the residential estates, said PC Mates.

He said the age range being targeted was a wide one with the youngest being 12 and 13 and the eldest being 19 or 20 but with the majority aged 14 or 15.

'We need a wide range of solutions to be put into place in a co-ordinated way. In the past all the agencies have done their own little bit but now we all want to work together, said PC Mates.