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Friday May 30, 2008

Two steps forward, how many back?

We're all fascinated by this story in a local paper in South London on a council spending £15k to replace a few steps. The reason has nothing to do with safety; it's because nearby residents don't like the fact that young people sit on them.

The council has decided to spend time, effort and money to remove the steps and make it as uncomfortable as possible for young people to hang around. They are even proposing not to install a handrail so teenagers can't lean against anything.

In their defence the council says the work is part of a package of improvements that also include trying to make a local park safer so that young people have somewhere else to go.

Even so, it does seem like a bit of a drastic measure. And as many of the comments have pointed out, the issue is not that young people are hanging out there – it's that there is a small number who are causing problems.

It's great to see a number of young people taking up the issue and we'll be watching to see what happens.

Who thought concrete steps could be so fascinating...

Posted by Olly ( 2:02 PM ) Link to this post  |  Comments[0]