Call for Keighley footpath closure to deter anti-social youths (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Call for Keighley footpath closure to deter anti-social youths

8:30am Monday 6th February 2012 in Keighley

Wendy Robinson, right, and Kathryn Hyde at the footpath

Dozens of people have backed a campaign calling for the closure of a footpath they claim is plagued by yobs.

Eighty people have signed a petition calling on Bradford Council to block off a footpath connecting Prospect Mount to Wheat Head Crescent, in Keighley, after years of problems with youths terrorising residents.

People living in the area say youngsters constantly break in to back gardens and damage and steal property.

Kathryn Hyde, 33, one of two co-ordinators of the Prospect Mount Neighbourhood Watch, said: “The kids come down that snicket, jump over the wall then run through our gardens.

“They’ve been doing this since we came here about six years ago. Just in the last three weeks they’ve broken our gate and they’ve also tried to get into people’s sheds. It happens at night or in the early evening.

“We got everybody on the road to sign the petition – the only people who didn’t weren’t in at the time.”

The residents also want to see the northern section of the path closed, which runs from Prospect Mount to Rose Meadows.

The group handed the petition to Council chiefs last week.

Danny Jackson, Bradford Council countryside and rights of way manager, said: “The Council does appreciate the problems being experienced by local residents as a result of the behaviour of these young people and we are working with them and the police to try and find a solution.

"Unfortunately, the permanent closure of a public right of way should be considered as a last resort after other options have been explored, as it is a difficult and complex process.”

Brian White, 64, the Neighbourhood Watch group’s other co-ordinator, said: “The path now has no real use other than a quick get-away for kids up to no good. Our next door neighbour has taken his greenhouse down because he got fed up with having to replace the glass. When it snows we get snowballs with stones in them thrown at windows and in the summer it tends to be eggs. Gates have been smashed, vehicles damaged or stolen from and there have been thefts from sheds.”