Views sought over locking up of park

Wardens will be hitting the streets to knock doors of people living near Cannock Park as part of house-to-house consultations into plans to lock its gates at night.

Hundreds of consultation postcards will also be landing on doormats near to the beauty spot as part of the plans to close the site after dark.

A spate of anti-social behaviour and criminal damage has led residents to renew calls for the park to be closed after dark. Cannock Chase Council has now decided to carry out a consultation exercise.

The council is to ask for opinions on the issue from people living nearby.

From tomorrow, street wardens will be visiting households that border Cannock Park to talk to residents directly and deliver a consultation postcard.

They will be visiting Old Penkridge Road, Stafford Road, Park Road and Bishop Close.

As well as these visits, hundreds of letters will be going out to park users containing information and a copy of the consultation postcard.

Cannock Park has been hit by anti-social behaviour recently including damage to flowerbeds and trees, and gangs fighting after dark.

Street wardens have been working to engage youths in the park and have worked closely with Staffordshire Police as part of Operation Matrix, a crackdown on anti-social behaviour in Cannock and Rugeley.

Councillor John Jillings, Cannock Chase Council's safer and stronger communities leader, said: "The council is determined, with our partners, to find long-term solutions to the incidents of anti-social behaviour in Cannock Park.

"We have a difficult decision to make about possibly restricting access to Cannock Park at night. On the one hand, it may help to reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour, which we would all welcome.

"But restricting access at night would also hit law-abiding residents as well – people who walk their dogs at night, for instance. It's a fine balance that we have to strike."

Last month, Cannock Police revealed Operation Matrix had seen 75 children as young as 13 have been taken home to their parents in less than two months after being caught boozing on the streets of Cannock and Rugeley.