Episode 6 Street Patrol UK

'In a war against anti-social behaviour,

'armies of dedicated professionals are working hard

'to keep the peace on our streets.'

Enjoy yourself, have a laugh, have a drink - don't be a twit all night.

'This series is all about our quality of life. Who brings it down...'

It's a real shame when people start destroying a place that people love.

'..and who works hard to make it better again.'

The person who lives next door to it has to put up with this on a daily basis. It's not acceptable.

This is Street Patrol UK.

-'Coming up on today's programme...'

-He's got one stopped down here.

Chasing suspects, Lisson Grove.

'The community coppers facing a daily fight

'against violent anti-social gangs on a housing estate.

'A council worker hot on the trail of fiendish fly-tippers

'who dared to desecrate a country lane.'

You ain't going to find it funny when I'm knocking on your door.

'And the daily terror faced by vulnerable members of a day centre

'at the hands of teenage hooligans.'

We were never sure what they were going to do, but we daren't retaliate

because we weren't sure what they could do to us.

Anti-social behaviour on the streets is bad enough.

But feeling threatened in your own home? No-one should have to put up with that.

'Westminster is famous world over,

'not just for the Houses of Parliament

'but also some of London's best known streets and fancy addresses.

'Although it's not all bright lights,

'Westminster also has a dark under-belly.

'There is a major problem with violent gang culture.

'Westminster is the home of some of the biggest estates in the capital

'and gangs regularly fight it out for control of the stairwells.

'It's all about territory and who has the right to sell drugs on which estates.

'It's a terrifying form of anti-social behaviour

'for the everyday residents of these places.

'Westminster City Council has formed a close relationship with neighbourhood police officers

'to try to make the area less threatening for everybody.'

I generally hold them in pretty low regard. At times, I pity them.

Some of the kids on this estate, it strikes me that their horizons

go not much further than the estate's boundaries, which is sad.

As well as that one, I don't know if you can see it, it's on the wood.

There's the YGM again.

Not only are they smoking cannabis here, urinating and whatnot,

they disrespect the property, wanton vandalism.

Definitely. It's gang-related graffiti.

We do perceive a gang problem in this area.

These patrols are just one of the options in dealing with it.

Find out who's out there and disrupt them.

If we've got reasonable grounds, search them.

If we find anything, arrest them.

'Ian regularly patrols the estates with council warden, Brian Eaton'

People do work hard from every background and culture.

That's what makes it so much worse, when the person next door

is the one who's destroying your environment and their own environment.

'In addition to dealing with gang violence,

'Brian and Ian are hunting out everyday problems that make life unbearable for ordinary people -

'graffiti, urinating in stairwells, drug dealing.

'And there's evidence of it at every turn.'

On the floor, you've got two... we call them snap bags.

They'll carry a very small amount, enough for two cannabis cigarettes.

Further down the stairwell, past the spit I think I can see,

there's some cellophane,

which makes me suspect it may have held rather more cannabis

than can be accommodated in those bags.

The indication of that is supply. Perhaps. I could be wrong.

I speak to the residents pretty much every day I'm on duty.

They are fed up of groups of youths

treating particularly stairwells as their own to smoke cannabis,

to eat their fast food and leave their trash behind,

to spit, to urinate on, to graffiti.

Makes them feel embarrassed when their friends come to visit,

when their families come to visit.

It really does affect their quality of life.

A chap I spoke to recently said it's his home

that is being made less pleasant.

One place you should enjoy being is home.

How does that make me feel? At times, pretty helpless.

It's my job to sort this out. Yeah, we have our successes.

This kind of behaviour has got people thrown out of here.

That's what the council can do, if we provide sufficient evidence.

It's got people anti-social behaviour orders, anti-social behaviour injunctions.

But there's a lot more work to do, and we'll keep doing it.

'It's clear that this is no easy job for Ian and his colleague, PC Jose Rodriguez.

'The layout of the estate makes things harder -

'lots of stairwells, walkways and passages

'for people to hide in and escape along.

'If their regular patrols disperse the gangs,

'that's very reassuring for residents.'

-You must be freezing.

-I've got a thick coat on. How about you?

-I've got three jumpers on.

-Three jumpers? That's all right.

'As their tour of the estate continues,

'Jose finds a dangerous weapon just discarded on the ground.'

I think it's an improvised handle. It's a hacksaw blade.

Those very fine teeth go right along one surface.

Put some tough tape around it, looks like parcel tape,

you've fashioned a handle.

Would that make a weapon? I wouldn't want to be slashed with it.

Speculating, it could be used to cut, say, a chain on a bike

which has been secured.

'They regularly find lethal blades and they know the places to look.'

Where might I hide something, say, a knife?

In this flower bed. Cracks in the wall perhaps a bit obvious.

If you need to get rid of the item in a hurry...

..perhaps because police have turned up...

so it's, er, into the middle.

What's Jose got?

'Just like that, out of nowhere, there's a chase.

'Although it wasn't loud enough for our camera, Jose and Brian heard a whistle.

'It's a tell-tale warning for gang members to scarper because they've seen the police.'

Chasing suspects, Lisson Grove.

'They don't even know what the gang was up to,

'but the fact that they're running away suggests it was seriously anti-social.'

Four or five youths turning right into Church Street.

UNCLEAR COMMANDS ON POLICE RADIO

Yeah, suspects lost.

Last seen heading right into Church Street from Lisson Grove.

'The team separates to better their chances of catching the youths.

'After a few minutes, Ian hears over the radio that Jose has managed to detain one of the gang.

'He quickly goes to back him up.'

Swanbourne House, received. Was he OK?

Jose's got one stopped down here.

Well done.

They'll pixilate it out, don't worry.

So, come on then. Why were you running?

I'm not in your face.

It's half-eight in the evening.

People are coming home from work, relaxing, they don't want this sort of stuff on their doorstep.

We're calling a check on this gentleman, that's wanted.

If nothing else, we've disrupted the problem that was there,

it isn't going to be there tonight and probably won't be for a while.

'The police search the youth but find nothing,

'so have no reason to detain him any longer.'

-MUFFLED:

-Move that out of my face.

They'll just fuzz your face out. Don't worry about it.

Very evasive, aggressive throughout the stop.

Erratic behaviour, glazed eyes, slurred speech - all the signs of cannabis use.

We've got good intelligence that they're selling drugs on the estate.

Yeah. Go.

-Go. You don't live here.

-I'm going to go.

That's all right. Just go.

Have a good day.

Take care.

'The lads have been scared off for now and that gives the police a good opportunity

'for an extensive search of the block the gang ran out of.'

It's worth looking... Do these open?

Hey, they do.

Think it's just general rubbish.

It all looks OK, but you never know.

There was a stash of drugs found in a block near here just last week.

A few bags of cannabis.

But, yeah, knives have been found in the past.

Mind the doors, please.

Even I've got a whiff now. There's a bit of spit down there.

As we came into the block, there was a strong smell of cannabis.

Went up the stairs and the windows are open.

You can still smell cannabis. It's a very strong smell.

This block, incidentally, is predominantly...

occupied by the elderly.

I regard it as sheltered accommodation.

Yet you get a bunch of, frankly, yobs like that

at times taking over the stairwells.

Yet more urine staining down here.

For a resident to come across five or six guys like we just encountered,

particularly if they're old, as they predominantly are in this block,

I would say possibly quite frightening.

The lads, probably, are no real threat to them, but they don't know that.

'And that's the reason they're here, to make the residents feel safer.

'As you can see, there may be evidence everywhere

'that it's really hard to combat this sort of anti-social behaviour

'in a place with so many little hidey-holes.

'If they can do what they've done tonight, act as a deterrent and disrupt low-level activity,

'it's a job very well done and the residents can rest easier in their beds.'

'I've been out and about on a street patrol of my own,

'to hear what bothers you about Britain today.'

-Can I ask what your names are?

-I'm John.

-Hello, John.

-I'm Charlie.

-Hello, Charlie. Are you related?

-Father and son.

Superb! Let's have it from two generations.

What drives you mad, John, about anti-social behaviour?

-Feet on seats on trains.

-I agree.

-I don't know why people do it.

Often, it's adults. They should know better.

-Have you ever said something to anyone?

-I have. I spent a year.

It was a mission! I was telling people, "Please don't do that.

"Cos tomorrow, I might be sitting on that seat."

I got, generally, a good reaction, but one or two were a bit shirty,

sometimes a bit nasty, so I decided to stop as it was a bit risky.

Let's come over to you, Charlie. What drives you mad?

People blaring out music out of their phones on the train.

It's usually quite a bad song. Very annoying!

Tell me what really winds you up from anti-social behaviour.

Drunken yobs. Middle of the night, shouting,

making a nuisance of themselves,

trying to start fights, smashing bottles.

Just being threatening and intimidating.

Looking like me, you get people on the other side of the street shouting at you,

"Oh, mate! Stupid hair!"

You're like, "Excuse me? I'm just walking. I'm getting home, mate.

"I've had a nice night. Don't ruin mine."

-Wycha, where are you from?

-I'm from Poland.

Lovely. I'm going to ask you to list anti-social traits, things that wind you up.

-All the people throwing rubbish on the streets.

-Yeah.

I came across this guy on the Tube and he had the shopping.

He took the jumper that he just bought from the bag and he just left it there.

-Left the bag?

-He just left the bag behind him and took the pullover.

It doesn't take much to take it with you and throw it in the bin.

That really drives me crazy, especially with all the environmental issues.

-What's your name?

-Sally-Ann.

-What a lovely name.

-Thank you, Dom.

Sally-Ann, tell me anything that winds you up about anti-social behaviour.

I can't stand children that don't respect old people, adults.

They're loud, they're on their phones, graffiti,

mess, they drop litter.

My parents taught me to be respectful and that's what I do.

I don't drop litter. I don't graffiti.

I go to work. I respect my elders. That's what you do.

You don't look like a person who would graffiti, Sally-Ann.

-You mentioned the G word. What is it you dislike?

-I think it looks ugly.

Someone's made a big effort to make things really nice and people just graffiti.

-Half the time you can't read what it says, anyway.

-Sally-Ann, I like you.

-Thanks for your answers.

-I like you too, Dom.

-Cheers, lovely.

'Fly-tipping is a huge problem in this country.

'Councils across the land are busy clearing up the lazy, thoughtless,

'not to say illegal dumping of rubbish

'which not only blights our streets and countryside, but can be hazardous to our health.

'Over in Essex, council worker Darren Weaver is on his way

'to inspect a recently reported fly-tipping site on a country road

'easily visible to visitors arriving in the UK via the Essex coast.

'Charming(!)'

It's quite a big fly-tip. It's obviously not ONE.

It's obviously a bit of a hot-spot, we call it.

I'm going to go through it all.

This is of particular interest to me, the fruit machine.

There might be bits and pieces that I can track back

to the original...owners, and things like that.

It looks like it was made in 2004, so it's quite old.

I'll try to track back from the manufacturer.

They might be able to tell me what pub...or takeaway shop

this was located in.

Take some photographs.

Sometimes, it's hard to know what to look for, but might strike gold.

I'm looking for anything - names, addresses -

that might lead me to who's dumped this rubbish here

or who the rubbish originally belonged to.

You never know what you come across, sometimes.

'And it isn't long before Darren's senses are alerted

'to a potentially dangerous package carelessly discarded.'

Ah. Interesting.

Hypodermic needles.

Brand new ones. No, they're not brand new. Look at this.

That's interesting.

This is some sort of pack for drug users, by the looks of it.

They use that and they burn it.

That's how they get their high.

'Dumping used drug paraphernalia in an open space next to family homes?

'Unbelievable!

'Darren takes no chances with this alarming discovery

'and quickly bags the evidence to remove this risky rubbish,

'so that he can follow up any clues from the package

'and track down the offending dumper.

'But, first things first...'

We have to get this clear,

so we're looking at three van loads of rubbish, big vans.

That's going to cost probably about £1,000 to clear this.

And it is tax-payers' money.

You can't get much more anti-social than that, to be honest with you.

'Darren is kept on his toes dealing with waste issues

'across 147 square miles of his corner of Essex.

'His three years in the job has done nothing to dampen his enthusiasm

'for tracking down thoughtless fly-tippers.'

It's not a victimless crime. There's victims for this crime.

And it is a crime. People think, "Fly-tipping's not serious." It's a crime, OK?

I like finding the people that have done it and made some other person's life a misery.

I like putting that misery on to them.

If you think it's funny, you ain't going to find it funny when I'm knocking on your door.

I want to do the best because it's not only affecting everyone else, it's affecting me directly.

I'm a council tax payer, so I want to get a good service.

I'm doing what I would expect someone to be doing if I was paying.

I tell you what really gets my goat about this.

It's not just that some irresponsible doughnut

has made a mess in my favourite home county.

It's also the fact that I can think of a lot better use

for the £37.4 million a year it costs us

to clean up this eyesore across the country.

I bet you can, too.

'The day after his inspection,

'ex Metropolitan Police officer Darren is getting stuck into

'the clearing of the offending fly-tipping site.

'As the site starts to lose its illegal clutter,

'Darren discovers further clues about where some of it might have come from.'

By the looks of it, this has come from builders, gardeners.

You've got great big piles. That pile has come off a tipper truck.

You can see that by the way it's dumped.

It's definitely from some garden clearance company, or something like that.

That's one load done.

You can see, it's just made a tiny little dent on the fly-tipping here.

They're going to get a bigger truck, a 7.5 tonne truck.

They're going to be here all day and two or three hours tomorrow as well.

'While Darren's busy following up the clues from the fly-tip site,

'the clearing crew have wasted no time in returning the layby,

'which had become a blot on the landscape,

'back into a pristine parking area, safe for use by everyone.

'The good news is that there's been a breakthrough,

'helping to track down the offenders who dumped that fruit machine.

'Darren is hot on their trail.'

I've turned up at our contractor's depot to take a statement

from one of the lads that witnessed the massive fly-tipping on the A120.

Hopefully, we can get enough evidence to chase up the suspects,

because it was a massive fly-tipping,

massively anti-social to the people that live there and I want a result.

I'm going to speak to them now.

'The contractor is keen to give Darren a witness statement,

'but has requested to remain anonymous to protect his identity.'

There's a few properties along the A120 I pick up.

-This was one of the last ones on that route.

-Yeah.

There's a Transit, looked like a tipper, in front of me

with two, I don't know what they were, they were foreign-looking,

unloading from their vehicle.

One was a fruit machine, I think.

'Darren leaves the interview greatly encouraged by what he's just heard.'

It was a really good statement.

The lane's quite narrow, so he couldn't get out the lane.

He's stuck behind this flat-bed truck and watched two guys

take the fruit machine off the back and throw it on the layby.

He's got the registration number, descriptions of the blokes. It gives me a really good lead to follow.

I'll contact the DVLA and find out who the registered keeper is.

But, yeah, it's pretty good evidence.

It hopefully will give us a pretty good chance of catching the suspects

and taking them before the courts.

Hopefully, my ideal world is the council tax payers don't pay anything for the clearance.

We get the money back from the people who committed the offence, who should be paying for it.

It's not fair for everyone else

to pay for one person or two people's profit - it's not right.

That's what we're trying to combat.

'All Darren has to do now is to find the culprits and make them pay.'

There's nothing wrong with being scared. It's a natural human emotion and we've all felt it.

Picture this. You're walking along the street and you see a gang of youths.

Your heart rate picks up. You feel a bit anxious.

You might even cross the road to avoid walking past them.

We've all done it - even me.

And trust me, I've been around a bit.

But now, imagine being an old-age pensioner feeling trapped by fear

in a place where you should feel safe.

'Which is what the elderly members of a day centre were made to feel

'when an unruly gang of teenagers destroyed their peace of mind

'and put the pensioners' lifeline to the community at risk.'

-I'll smash the window!

-GLASS BREAKS

We were never sure what they were going to do.

With one or two, it wasn't bad, but when there was a gang

you were very, very risky, what could happen.

It only needed one and the rest would follow.

That's what I think of them!

They'd call out to us and shout at us, or throw things.

Cans and anything like that.

Every day, when I'd pull up to unlock the building,

there'd be glass,

broken bottles, pizza thrown all across the car park.

They thought it was funny.

So they'd come every day and cause trouble.

Awful behaviour.

You'd go and tell them off and you just got a load of abuse.

'Life hasn't always felt this threatening for the members of the Greeno Centre in Surrey,

'which has been welcoming the over-55s for ten years

'and boasts 450 members.'

They might come just one day a week. They may come five days a week.

It all depends on what they want out of the day centre.

They might come and meet their friends to have a cup of tea and a catch-up

or they might have their hair cut.

We have theatre outings and seaside outings.

We have lovely parties. The people are very nice here.

'But the centre is situated in a park which is there to be enjoyed by the whole community -

'including the local teenagers,

'who used the covered areas outside the centre as a hang-out.

'But noisy teenagers can seem like a lot of scary trouble

'when you're vulnerable and elderly.'

We didn't feel safe walking out to our cars,

especially if we had an evening function on.

We used to get the men to escort the ladies to the cars.

They used to pick anything up and break windows, if they wanted to,

or throw bottles in the car park or anything they could get hold of.

They just didn't seem to like us.

It made them really not want to come here. They were quite frightened.

You want a nice feel-good factor for the members to come to the day centre.

Instead, it was like a junkyard coming in.

LAUGHTER AND SHOUTING

'From the members' point of view, they began to feel as though they were under siege,

'until finally, an evening event was completely ruined.'

When Vanessa put the fashion show on,

all these children just banged along the window all the way down.

And they kept on doing it.

Go and bang on your own windows! Go on!

Calling out through the windows - awful.

SHOUTING AND JEERING

You couldn't hear cos they wouldn't give over.

So we had to stop it and call the police.

'Although the teenagers' behaviour was escalating and causing distress to the members,

'the police could only move them on.

'Something had to give, but could anything bridge

'the growing gap of animosity between the generations?'

We daren't retaliate

because we weren't sure what they could do to us.

Anti-social behaviour is about a lack of human decency

and disrespect for people around you.

If someone's way of life is making yours a misery, that's as anti-social as it gets.

Luckily for you and me, there are plenty of people that we can turn to.

'And this series is their chance to shine.

'We're on the front line with highly skilled teams of council workers,

'police officers and volunteers who are committed to keeping our streets safe and clean

'and taking on our anti-social battles on a daily basis,

'to make sure that our lives are not blighted

'by other people's bad behaviour.'

This is Street Patrol UK.

'Stone theft appears to have become the new metal theft,

'with high demand for its use in rockeries,

'as kitchen floors and patios.

'New stone can cost up to £100 per square metre,

'which makes stealing precious ancient stone from sites such as churches

'irresistible to unscrupulous thieves.'

Morally, it's wrong. Whoever's buying it off them, they need stopping as well.

How can you replace that? You can't replace it.

It's hundreds of years old. It's just really sickening.

'And one area of the country

'that's been suffering from these anti-social attacks is Yorkshire.'

One of the things regarding stone, particularly Yorkshire stone,

is it's not very easily identifiable.

One piece looks very much like another piece of Yorkshire stone.

It's not like a television that may have a serial number, for example,

that can be traced back to an owner.

'The pretty Yorkshire village of Thornton

'boasts one of the most historic churchyards in the country.

'It was here where the famous writers, the Bronte sisters,

'started their own story nearly two centuries ago.'

The Brontes are a family of great writers.

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

and Anne Bronte's The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall

are among some of the best-loved books in the English language.

'Their father had been the minister of a local church in Thornton.'

The Brontes came here with their young family.

Maria and Patrick came here with two girls, Elizabeth and Maria.

He preached here for five years

and while he was here his family was completed.

Charlotte, Emily, Anne, Patrick Branwell,

all born in Thornton, christened in this chapel.

So they actually worshipped in this chapel.

'The chapel may now be in ruins,

'but its historical significance and connection to the Brontes

'means that the much-loved site has become a magnet for visitors

'from all over the world.

'One summer evening in the village of Thornton,

'brazen thieves came into their 200-year-old churchyard

'and tore off two of the headstones,

'ripped up stone slabs from the graves

'and stole stones from the church wall itself.'

We came down here in the morning, half past eight, quarter to nine,

and Chris, one of our guys, he come down,

and we noticed that some of the stone tops had gone.

'But for the greedy thieves, one visit wasn't enough.'

We came back the following Saturday

and we discovered that a grave had been pinched from there

and two graves from over there.

The size of this were taken.

We thought this is more than somebody taking a bit of stone.

This is taking stone to order. They'd taken perfect pieces.

They wouldn't take anything that had a crack so it could be identifiable.

'A staggering 70,000 heritage sites across the UK

'suffer theft and vandalism every year.

'The police took the theft from Thornton churchyard very seriously.'

We'd been receiving information that stone had been stolen across the village,

but that the chapel in particular and another English heritage site,

Prospect Mill, which is also in Thornton village,

two of those offences had taken place which were of interest to us.

When something as important as gravestones start going missing,

we were looking at CCTV evidence, eye witness evidence,

in trying to find out who would commit these offences.

To come in and desecrate a graveyard

you really have to be desperate.

You've really got no morals and no social conscience.

We really were disappointed, absolutely sickened.

Furious, to be honest.

It's a very anti-social thing to do.

It's not just upset the people who belong to the church here,

it's upset an awful lot of other people, because we cannot understand

why people get so much pleasure out of being so anti-social.

It just doesn't make sense.

'The local villagers were also outraged by this shocking theft.'

Everybody thinks it's despicable.

How can anybody go into a graveyard and decimate a place of rest

for the local people?

People's grandparents are buried in that graveyard. It's disgusting.

I would say it is anti-social.

It's unfair that people would do that and ruin a local landmark.

They're just decimating people's heritage.

'The police have their work cut out

'solving such anti-social heritage crimes.

'But without patrolling such sites 24 hours a day -

'something which, with the best will in the world

'the police don't have the resources to do -

'it's a tough job to catch the culprits.'

The area that we work in is famous for Yorkshire stone.

It's naturally beautiful. We don't want people taking it.

We're determined to continue to deal with those people involved in this sort of criminality.

'Local people are equally determined to put a stop to this.

'A group of volunteers has worked hard to transform this heritage site

'into a tourist attraction, instead of a magnet for anti-social behaviour.'

We have young people like Michael over there,

who came to us on his Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme,

and he's back helping as a volunteer.

It's important to the whole of Thornton, really.

It's keeping the heritage going.

Not everyone realises the history we have in Thornton.

It's good to preserve that for the future, really.

These people have given up their time voluntarily to clear this site

and make it appealing to visitors so that everybody can enjoy it.

Anti-social behaviour is a fact of life at the moment,

and it's how you deal with that.

Our way of dealing with it is to show people

that there are people here all the time, and they tend to move on.

We love people to come and sit and reflect.

What we don't want is for people to come and vandalise the place.

'This is one crime where we can all play our part.

'Not buying old stuff when you don't know where it comes from.

'And if you see someone, however legitimate they look, digging up stone, report it.'

'I wanted to hear more from you and what you think about anti-social behaviour.'

-What's your names, chaps?

-I'm Xen.

-Xen, nice to meet you.

-Ciaron.

-Ciaron, nice to meet you.

Xen, what drives you mad about anti-social behaviour?

-People urinating on the streets.

-Yeah.

-Spitting.

-Eugh.

Graffiti. Fighting in the streets when you're a bit drunk, as well.

Good answers, Xen. What about you?

-I think people when they're swearing on public transport, when there's little children around.

-Yeah.

When you swear, little kids pick up on that quickly. They learn from it, immitate it.

-Have either of you said something to somebody about something you didn't like?

-Kind of.

The other day, some woman was walking with her child.

She was about four and did something wrong.

The mum used the C-word on the kid.

-I'm like, "Wow! C-word on the kid!"

-Four-year-old?

-Yeah.

The little kid running and said, "You little C." I was like, "Whoa!"

-I'm shocked. Did you say something?

-I looked at her and went, "What?"

She looked at me and went... Told me to go away.

-That shocked you?

-Absolutely. It was in Tesco's.

I want to know, Pat, what winds you up that people do that's anti-social?

-Spitting in the street.

-Hear, hear.

-Rowdiness.

-Yup.

Just making idiots of themselves and interfering with everybody else's space.

-Pat, I get the impression that you're a little bit feisty. Have you ever told anybody off?

-Definitely.

-What have you said and what were they doing?

-In Woolworth's, when we had Woolworth's, shop-lifting.

-You collared them?

-Yeah.

I said to them, "Do you realise other people have to pay for that?"

We all have to pay. My nephew said I'm too feisty.

-One of these days, someone's going to smack me in the mouth!

-I doubt it, Pat. You're too lovely.

When you told them off, what did they say?

They were only a couple of kids and they did go. They did move away.

-Yeah.

-I watch what I say nowadays, cos I'm that much older.

But it does wind me up.

-Good for you, Pat.

-Nice to have met you.

-It's lovely to have met you.

-Cheerio, my lovely.

-Thank you.

Most anti-social issues are pretty cut and dry.

There are ways that you do behave and there are ways that you don't.

Sometimes, the people causing the problems genuinely don't realise

why they can't do as they please and why it bothers other people.

'Members of the Greeno centre for the over-55s in Surrey

'were feeling under siege from the gangs of teenagers

'who congregated outside their building.'

It wasn't very pleasant the way that they treated us.

But they wouldn't give up. They would never give up.

'What felt like aggressive behaviour to the day centre members,

'for the teenagers, they felt they were doing what came naturally.'

We played a lot of football during the day, then a bit later,

we had a little smoke, a little drink.

Normal stuff, really. We'd get a bit boisterous, make a bit of noise.

Then one of the residents comes out to tell us to be quiet

and we'd shout back.

'Enough was enough.

'Clearly, something had to be done to bridge the communication gap between the two sides.

'So, the day centre staff got together with the youth workers

'and came up with a radical solution.

'They proposed getting everyone together in one room to talk about what was going on.'

The first meeting we had was definitely the most awkward one.

We've only seen these people shouting out their windows at us and vice-versa.

Within 15 minutes of the meeting,

I definitely knew we were just going to get blamed for an hour.

INAUDIBLE

'It wasn't straightforward, but there was a break-through.'

We did get one good thing out of that meeting.

I realised that the old people aren't all the same.

I realised we were being quite hypocritical saying that they stereotype us

because we were stereotyping them.

It's not a nice feeling when you walk down the road and you know

that an old person has just crossed over because of you.

That is not a nice feeling.

We needed to start talking. Blaming each other wasn't going to get us nowhere.

'You're right there, Dan.

'Despite the rocky start, Vanessa from the day centre was also hatching a plot

'to try and bridge the age and the communication gap.'

The members of the day centre don't really play video games on the TV

and they're not technically minded.

So I just thought with a video game and TV games,

they could get the two generations together

and show them that they can have fun and they have got things in common.

'Vanessa wasn't the only one working towards bringing the groups together

'to thrash out their differences in a constructive way.

'Youth worker Chelsea Renehan encouraged the teenagers

'to take their youth club to the day centre.'

This was an opportunity for these kids

who had caused bother at the Greeno to go in and say, "This is us."

It's not the blame game. It was just going in to run an activity.

If you don't want to speak to each other, don't, but you're in each other's presence.

'What would the pensioners make of this new approach?

'Would they be up for it?'

I think we thought we've got to do our part as well as they've got to do their part.

And from first sight,

they were determined that they were going to do some good of it.

They did a very nice gesture. They brought us chocolates.

Which I thought was LOVELY!

'Clearly, you can't go wrong with chocolates,

'but after the sour taste left by the teenagers' previous behaviour,

'I think it'll take more than a bit of sweet-tooth satisfaction

'to solve this problem.'

INAUDIBLE

Some things they were coming out with, I would have never expected.

It takes you by shock and you realise, like,

just because she goes to an old person's centre it doesn't mean that she can't have a chat with you.

They realised that they liked who we were and we liked who they were.

KAY: Respect.

One word, respect. They respected us. We respected them.

It's just bloomed from then on.

CHEERING, APPLAUSE AND WHISTLES

When you're listening to their real-life stories,

you think this man's actually been there, done that - that was really interesting.

You've got to see it to believe it!

You've got to see these two groups coming together and mixing.

The greeting they have, the passion they have as well, it's wonderful.

The kids have learned curling. They're going to be playing cards. They've done bingo.

One of our girls is going to show one of the ladies how to set up a Facebook account.

'It's not just about connecting to virtual friends.'

It's good, because when you see them down the high street...

-It's like having an extra 50 grandparents!

-It is!

We walk down the high street and get people waving at us all over the place.

It all happened because the two groups wanted it to happen.

My members were really scared.

Because they've got a perception of children in hoodies,

they feel that they are hooligans.

But underneath, they're really good kids. Really good kids.

Now we've established this friendliness with them

and this working with them,

everything is perfect.

Since we filmed with our anti-social saviours,

we've got some updates for you.

'Investigations into the theft and damage of graveyard stones

'at the Bronte family's old church in Yorkshire are still on-going.

'However, the police have caught and convicted a local person

'for theft from another heritage site in the area.

'Since that prosecution,

'there have been no more reports of criminal damage at the Bronte Bell Chapel.

'And in Tendring, Darren is still pursuing the fly-tippers

'who off-loaded a jukebox in a country lane.

'He's preparing to give them a hefty fine.'

That's your lot for today. See you next time.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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