A YOUTH club in Ross-on-Wye, run by the Basement Youth Trust, has been forced to close due to anti-social behaviour.
The club, held three nights a week at the Venue on Hill Street, owned by the Baptist Church, will be closed this week and on October 29, while the trustees review the situation, with a view to possibly re-opening on October 30.
In a statement the club said it operates a code of conduct to ensure respectful behaviour inside the club and those who breach this code are subjected to temporary bans and, if behaviour continues, it could eventually to a permanent ban.
A spokesman for the youth club said: “The vast majority of the young people who attend, follow these rules quite happily and the club has run successfully for many years on this basis.
“Sadly, a small minority have refused to comply and are now subject to permanent bans. These few youths have chosen to embark on a campaign of intimidation by congregating outside the club, abusing the staff, and on one occasion assaulting a youth worker.
“They are causing severe disruption to the neighbours, leading other young people astray and spoiling the experience for those who want to attend the club in a peaceful manner.
“The police have been called regularly to disperse the troublesome element in the last few weeks.
“The temporary closure will hopefully serve to de-escalate the situation, give the staff a rest from the stress of the past few weeks and allow the trust to devise a strategy, in co-operation with John Kyrle High School and the police, for how to reopen in a safe manner and without ongoing disruption to the neighbourhood.”
The town was warned that the trustees might take this course of action during a public meeting hosted by Ross Town Council last week with West Mercia’s Police and Crime Commissioner, who attended with the local police inspector and explained that Ross was located in a low-level crime area.
Keith Wilding, one of the youth club trustees said: “Despite assurances by the commissioner and the inspector with things looking calm on top, we are furiously paddling underneath dealing with serious issues of anti-social behaviour.
“We are currently witnessing the worst behaviour by youths in the 20 years I have been involved with the club.
“We’ve had some ups and downs in the past, but I’ve not seen the behaviour like this in the 12 to 18 age group before.
“We do have some great teenagers, but the amount of disruption that we are currently seeing is the worse that I’ve ever known.
“It doesn’t feel like a low-level crime area to me. We are seeing disrespect of authority; disrespect of the youth workers at the facility, the equipment, to the degree that I’ve not seen before.
“I am of the opinion there are not enough officers on the ground for any follow up support. “We are at the stage where we feel we might need to shut, possibly permanently. We are in a position where we need to close for a few nights and walk away from what is now becoming a major problem. I think this is a real shame.
“I don’t feel there are sufficient consequences arising from any incidents. I know Covid-19 got blamed for many problems, but surely this is behind us now.”
Inspector James Ashton said: “It’s good that Ross has a youth club as not every town the size of this town has a facility like this.
“Having youth diversion activities is beneficial and I am pleased in a roundabout way, that the youths know the officers.
“Policing in Ross has been over manned in recent times, however we have had an uplift in town centre resources.”
John Campion, the Police and Crime Commissioner responded and said: “We have a very complex policing system in which the teams engage regularly engage with organisations. We admit we don’t do enough youth work or investing in young people. But where it is happening, it needs to be supported.
“The low level anti-social behaviour, which has been highlighted tonight, shows that intervention is important and joined up co-operation between working with our youth, and where it is happening, policing is supporting it to be successful.”