Brinnington Stockport

Vandalism drug use and intimidation antisocial Behavior has a major impact on people’s lives and in their communities and it’s the number one reason people don’t feel safe where they live according to a yugov survey train stations are like magnets for this kind of behavior but staff at the one I’m

Heading to now say they found an unlikely solution brington in Stockport includes some of the most deprived areas in England according to government figures Darren and Stewart are customer service assistants of the train station they decided to set up a shop to give back to the community so this is it then yeah

This is it it it’s a full-on shop isn’t it brington station Swap Shop is where locals can not only donate unwanted household items but pick them up for free too it’s developed over the last like 18 months in this tiny little table now it’s everything books is we and it’s well organized

Isn’t it you got baby clothes there boys clothes girls clothes we have got low and te some of them can spend six hours sat there sting CL sitting folding it it’s more of a community Hub now where we’ve got people that you know just come

In here for a chat but working at the station hasn’t always been so easy before I came here the the ticket vending machine used to get smashed we had an old member of Staff you know got attacked posters like getting burnt and stuff on on the platform um we have seen

A big change in kids over time as they’ve got to know us we don’t get that anymore is that is that not a maturity thing though possibly but you still see them doing stuff other places you know they won’t touch our station well because of this because I know

Particularly these kids their parents coming in or cuz they’ve got to know us and they’ve seen that we’re all right and we’ll sit and have a chat with them when maybe they’re not getting that anywhere else re Street runs a boxing gym nearby growing up in brington he he admits that

He often targeted the train station as a kid I was a naughty kid I was a bit of a bit of a role to like to fight main thing was the train station really who was terrorizing the train station when we was kids dare I say cast your mind

Back why why you did those things boredom purely boredom obviously I was around the wrong people wrong crowds soon as I started the boxing found the Fus see then what’s what’s the answer for me growing up looking at the the old lot that were doing good pushed

Me to do what I was doing having people from the actual Community to work with the kids I think that would make a big big difference let’s talk about the swap shop what you think about that I think it’s amazing I think it’s just showing the kids that the they’re trying to help

The community my kids love it my kids are in and out there near enough every day there’s a steady stream of people stopping at the Swap Shop there used to be a lot of antisocial behavor what’s it like now A lot quieter you see the kids in here that they normally just looking

Around in the toy boxes or having a look at the clothes I mean it was horrible before but now it’s hell of a lot better earlier this year the government unveiled its antisocial Behavior action plan pledging £160 million for things like youth support and tougher laws but

Is that enough Rebecca Bryant works at the community safety organization resolve I think it’s a good start start we need to focus on early intervention and prevention so by that I mean uh more mentoring more restorative justice more mediation what is the the national picture when it comes to antisocial

Behavior last year um a million incidents were reported to the police but are you go survey um suggests that only half of people report antisocial behavior when they’ve been a victim or a witness to it it’s certainly not low level um and it can be a precursor to more serious

Crime it’s great to see the impact the station Swap Shop has and tackling antisocial Behavior it sort of protected the station and us we always feel safe working here don’t we what this station has managed to achieve by simply putting the Community First is really special and you wonder whether an approach like

This might just work elsewhere yeah it’s a great idea that