A HALESOWEN councillor ‘got down with the youth’ in a bid to find out what was troubling local youngsters in her ward.

Belle Vale Cllr Jill Nicholls spent time with youngsters at the Highfields Lane skatepark to discover what could be done to help relieve the boredom of local teenagers and prevent anti-social behaviour.

And she has come to the conclusion that the chronic lack of facilities is the root of the problem.

She said: “There is nothing for these youngsters to do and we have to give them more sporting facilities.

“Anti-social behaviour would be reduced if we could get them off the streets and doing something sports based.”

Cllr Nicholls controversially called for a BMX track to be installed at Hawne Recreation Ground but her fellow Belle Vale councillors Jennie Dunn and Bob James slammed the idea claiming it would attract anti-social behaviour.

However, the criticism from her fellow conservatives has not dampened Cllr Nicholls desire to solve the age old problem of keeping youngsters occupied.

Cllr Nicholls said: “I wanted to know if there was anything I or the council could do to make these youngsters lives easier.

“Local youngsters all seem to get such a bad name but these were very polite and I took down all their concerns and complaints about the area.”

She added: “We immediately discovered that they were not happy with the state of the skatepark so I arranged for the council Green Team to come down and remove countless beer cans and prune some bushes which had got to wild.”

And the tour of parts of the ward with the police also helped the Cllr understand the problems that blight her ward.

She said: “The tour with the PCSOs was very interesting and they showed me where the groups of youths congregate and the problems we have with littering and the real problem of graffiti which is a very anti-social activity.”