Police cracking down on anti-social behaviour in Wigan

Operation Bluefin launched earlier this month and is a joint operation between the police and Wigan Council to tackle concerns over anti-social behaviour in the borough.

And the programme has already seen a recent rise in anti-social behaviour in Platt Bridge and Bickershaw, while there has been an increase in vehicle crime in Abram which has seen them make several arrests.

Other recent problems have seen large groups of youths causing issues on Pennington Park and off-road nuisance on Bickershaw Country Park.

Officers have urged people to be mindful about keeping their homes and vehicles secure, while they said they have conducted visits with councillors to hotspot areas for anti-social behaviour and aim to decrease this.

A spokesman for the Leigh, Atherton and Hindley division of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said: “We have seen an increase in vehicle crime across the ward with several stolen vehicles recovered in the area. We would encourage people to be mindful about keeping their homes and vehicles secured.

“We have made several arrests in relation to vehicle crime and will update peoplewith the results of their day in court in due course where applicable.

“Off road nuisance on Bickershaw Country park will continue to be looked at by the neighbourhood teams for both Abram and Leigh as well as the safer roads tasking team. This extends to their use on public highways.

“We will continue to work with our partner agencies to support the vulnerable in our society as well as support victims of crime.

“We have seen an increase in anti-social behavior, particularly in the Platt Bridge and Bickershaw area.

“We have conducted visits with local councillors to hotspot areas and will continue to work with partner agencies and the local authority to decrease this.”

Police went on to warn parents that their children should not be meeting in groups. They said this will be addressed by Operation Bluefin with patrols tasked with decreasing anti-social behaviour.

They added:” We use Facebook, Twitter etc to keep people up to date with what’s going on in Abram, although as you can appreciate social media is not the forum for many of the incidents we deal with to be published. “

People have been encouraged to report issues which affect their community.

Information can be passed to crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

For non-emergency police reports people can contact GMP via the live chat function, which can be found on the force’s website.

Alternately the 101 service is still operational.

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