I am a student at university in Leeds and don’t live in Darlington anymore. Where I live in Leeds, there doesn't seem to be any of the same issues that I have every time I visit Darlington. In my street I am welcomed by groups of teenagers around 14 – 17 standing around in the road and the park that sits just behind my house making excessive noise and on occasions arguing or starting fights with my middle aged adult neighbours. This may appear strange coming from a 20 year old, someone that you may think would have been doing this themselves 5 years ago, but I was never one to cause trouble and this is all that these children do. When I arrived back during the start of November I couldn’t get past Grange Road because a box of fireworks had been lit in the middle of the street, causing traffic on both sides to come to a halt whilst the boys looked on in glee. Another journey home more recently saw the vandalism of my car which I try to fund and run myself, meaning I had to buy another wing mirror, a task I had to do just a couple of months before. Even more recently I had to divert my niece from picking up a condom outside the park gates. All these things I have experienced in Darlington in the few occasional days I have spent since the beginning of September up to Christmas. Is there not someone’s house they can all go trash together or spend time going to gigs or youth clubs that is what me and my parents did! Why do some people have to ruin the reputation of everyone under the age of 20?

Katherine Hasselby