Move in Bangor, Gwynedd, follows complaints about groups drinking on streets and harassing residents

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Children under 16 have been banned from a city centre at night in a crackdown on antisocial behaviour.

Under-16s who are without an adult or parent will be barred from the streets of Bangor, Gwynedd, between 9pm and 6am for six months.

North Wales police and Gwynedd county council took the controversial step after complaints about groups drinking alcohol on the streets and harassing residents.

Police inspector Simon Barrasford said: "Dispersal orders have proved an effective weapon against antisocial behaviour in other parts of the force and can demonstrate how partnership working can be most effective.

"Many people are working very hard to improve and regenerate the city centre as well as just wanting to enjoy their daily lives without being intimidated or harassed and I have no doubt dispersal orders areas will assist in that endeavour."

The ban gives police (including police community support officers) powers to order groups of two or more to leave the area.

Failure to comply could lead to up to three months' imprisonment and/or a fine of up to £2,500.

Catherine Roberts, senior community safety officer, said: "The use of a dispersal order within Gwynedd is likely to be an effective means of reducing antisocial behaviour."

Nick Pickles, the director of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: "The idea you could be fined or imprisoned for walking through the town centre simply because you are 15 and not accompanied by a parent is simply madness.

"To say that any under-16-year-old who is unaccompanied between 9pm and 6am is a criminal is the kind of draconian law you'd expect in North Korea, not north Wales.

"Criminalising every young person in Bangor – without any need for them to be engaged in any wrongdoing – is an unwarranted and disproportionate intrusion onto the civil liberties of thousands of perfectly law abiding young people."