Ashton-in-Makerfield has been experiencing turmoil due to gangs of youths terrorizing residents and turning the high street into a 'no go zone'. Youngsters have been throwing rocks at passers-by, attempting to steal phones, setting fires, and assaulting other young people at all hours. Shopkeepers have been forced to close early following raids by gangs of 20 to 30 teens, with some threatening staff and letting off stink bombs.
Dangerous incidents have escalated, with footage showing a youth dangerously driving a dirtbike up and down a main road through busy traffic, and CCTV catching vandals driving a car through a local football pitch at night. Balaclava-clad thugs threatened United Utilities contractors with knives while they were conducting works around Ashton Heath last Tuesday, prompting a police investigation. The workers refused to continue works as they didn't feel safe, and the site has been shut down until the issue is sorted out.
Greater Manchester Police investigated the knife threat incident and closed it due to a lack of evidential lines of enquiry. Anti-social behavior is widespread in Wigan, with locals reporting seeing lads in balaclavas driving through residential streets on bikes with no licence plates. Town centre business owners in Wigan say their lives are being made a misery by mobs of young people vandalizing and fighting in the streets.
Greater Manchester Police said some of the children involved in anti-social behavior in Wigan were as young as 12. The force has introduced two dispersal orders in Wigan in the last six months to address anti-social behavior. Up to 50 local young people have been responsible for anti-social behavior, including racial abuse, in Jaxons Court near Wigan bus station.
Police have been in touch with local schools and colleges to help identify those responsible, resulting in some students being excluded or suspended. 5%, resulting in 489 fewer recorded incidents.