POLICE have been kept busy in Wellington due to another rise in anti-social behaviour incidents in the town.

Members of Wellington Town Council heard at their latest meeting that officers were called out on 21 occasions in the past month because of unruly behaviour.

Calls came in about anti-social behaviour in Wellington Park on November 5 when at just before 6.30pm a group of up to 15 youths were in the area making a lot of noise. Damage to the park gates was reported the following day.

Then on November 9 at about 8.30pm another group of youths were playing loud music, drinking and smashing bottles. Police attended and the youths ran off.

A police report said: “Officers have removed groups of youths from the park a number of times in the past month having found them while out on patrol. Unless anti-social behaviour is actually involved those present are normally sent on their way having been told to stay out of the park.”

Anti-social behaviour covers a wide range of activities which causes harm to individuals and communities.

It is defined as “behaviour by a person which causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to persons not of the same household as the person.”

Councillors were told that anti-social behaviour was not restricted to youths, however, and of the 21 incidents in the past month only 13 were youth-related.

Other hot spot areas in recent weeks for anti-social behaviour include outside the Asda supermarket in the evening and Tonedale Mill.