GREAT Sankey parish councillors joined forces with csos last Friday night to encourage youths to get into boxing rather than hang around street corners.

The group visited trouble hot-spots Eagle Sports and Social Club, Marina Avenue and the area around Tim Parry Community Centre.

Clr Jim Regan said: “A lot of people feel intimidated by big groups of kids at night even if they’re doing nothing wrong or complain when they start getting too noisy.

“If you ask them to move on, they tell you they’ve got nowhere else to go so the boxing club provides them with an alternative.

“We want to encourage as many young people as possible to give it a try.”

The boxing course at Whittle Hall Community Centre, sponsored by Great Sankey Parish Council, has been running since the end of January.

Damian Ridpath, from Phoenix Olympic Amateur Boxing Club and one of the coaches who run the courses believes that getting young people into sport is the way forward.

He said: “We’re different to a lot of sports clubs because rather than just focusing on competition, we equally encourage participation.

“Too many youngsters get put off when they don’t think they’re good enough but I would say to anyone just come and give it a try.”

csos regularly patrol Great Sankey, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights, and have found in some places that a continued police presence in problem areas has discouraged teens from coming back.

CSO Lauren Garaven said: “One of the main problems is finding underage drinkers.

“It’s great to see so many councillors coming out so they can see for themselves what the problems are.”

For more information on the course call 07886 949568.