Working on the Caernarfon Herald since May last year I've noticed that not a week goes by without hearing about antisocial behaviour in Gwynedd, with pretty much everyone seeming to have encountered it at some point.
Antisocial behaviour is coming in and increasing variety of forms in the county, and some of the incidents we've reported in the last year include children in Porthmadog shooting air rifles at firefighters, young people throwing stones at older people in Groeslon, fights between drunken yobs in Caernarfon, kids hanging around outside homes in Penygroes, vandalism in Trefor, and damage to cars in Bangor.
Yet, as we reported this week, there have been no ASBOs (antisocial behaviour orders) given in Gwynedd in the last two years.
So are Police not doing their jobs properly? Or are the people commiting the acts of antisocial behaviour cunningly eluding capture? Perhaps that is giving them too much credit, but clearly something is not quite right so who is to blame?
For me, there is not one person or group that should take responsibility, but several.
It is clear that there is not enough for young people to do in many of the villages across Gwynedd, which is leaving them bored and with too much pent up energy.
However, it needs to be asked why some of these young people are directing their excess energy into antisocial behaviour? Why is it that these people think that hurling abuse at old ladies, or starting fights is an ok thing to do?
I think that parents have to take some responsibility for this. Obviously parents can't be with their children all the time and there isn't always much they can do to stop them getting in with the wrong crowd. But what parents can do is ensure they instil a sense of morality in their children, and make sure they know what is right and what is wrong, and above all act as role models, something a small minority of parents are not doing.
However, it doesn't help matters that the region is woefully under policed. I attended a meeting in Groeslon a couple of months ago where the CBM and PCSO admitted to only having access to a car every two weeks to cover nearly 30 villages, and the rest of the time they have to use a bicycle. In this day in age, that seems pretty shocking. Certainly Gwynedd is one of the safer county's in Britain, but having such low levels of policing and giving them such poor funding and resources just encourages antisocial behaviour as people know they can probably get away with most things without ever being caught.
Communities also need to take some responsibility, because many of them are suffering in silence. Because of the low number of police in the region it is up to communities to report every incident so that the Police know what is going on and where so they can target it.
I think antisocial behaviour in Gwynedd is only going to become more and more of a problem unless all of the above people take some responsibility to try and tackle the issue.
Have you been affected by antisocial behaviour? Or do you think there is no problem with antisocial behaviour here in Gwynedd? Give us your thoughts...
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