ANTI-social behaviour including intimidation and harassment of staff at Oswestry Library ‘has to stop now’, according to a senior Shropshire Cabinet member.

Over recent months young people have been acting inappropriately in the Arthur Street-based building, including swearing in the faces of staff, making lewd comments and vandalising property.

The behaviour has left staff shaken and Councillor Rob Gittins, Shropshire Council cabinet member for culture and digital, said ‘enough is enough’.

He added: “A  minority of youths are responsible for the increasingly intolerable anti-social behaviour and abuse aimed at library users, volunteers and staff.

“Our frustration at the situation and the perpetrators cannot be under-estimated.

“Shropshire libraries are safe spaces which people of all ages are encouraged to visit without being exposed to foul language, violent or intimidating behaviour.

“It is also completely unacceptable for volunteers and staff to have to manage these disturbances.

“We are liaising with the neighbourhood policing team and hope that the community will support our zero-tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour in our library.

“The library is open to anyone wanting to make appropriate use of the facilities and we do not want to have to ban people.

“Groups of friends are welcome to come in and use our library as an informal meeting place, where they can chat and use the Wi-Fi, but they must respect other people and behave appropriately.”

OTHER NEWS:

Incidents at the library, which have been witnessed by Advertizer reporters, have included youths as young as 12/13 shouting at library workers, many of whom are volunteers.

This has led to intervention from full-time staff members who are then, in turn, verbally abused by the youths when they are trying to ask them to leave.

The behaviour of the youths has also led to staff at the library having to make decisions around what is available to the public, with one section of the building having equipment removed because staff were unable to follow the poorly-behaved youths on CCTV.

The incidents are reported to police who are not always able to send officers to deal with the anti-social incidents.  

Library staff recently held talks with police officers from Oswestry Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) from West Mercia Police about what actions can be taken to cut anti-social behaviour.

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