Plastered in the park

SOME of the smashed windows at Foxdenton Hall

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SCORES of teenagers are bingeing on drink and drugs during 14-hour sessions throughout the night at Foxdenton Park, nearby residents claim.

Concerned residents contacted the Chronicle to raise awareness about the continuous use of the park by youths as a venue to get drunk and take drugs.

And Foxdenton Hall has been vandalised along with the building next to the park's bowling green.

Every weekend, for the past three months, around 30 to 40 youths aged between 13 and 16 go to the park at around 5pm and stay until 7 o'clock the next morning, residents said.

They say that cars are pulling up with dealers offering drugs to the youths. Among the mess that is left the next day are laughing gas cannisters, used barbecues, empty alcohol bottles and empty snap bags.

Along with mess being left, FAs well as concerns about anti-social behaviour and dogs and children potentially picking up something dangerous that is left behind, residents fear that the teenagers may suffer extremely ill health after drinking and taking drugs.

Recently, a 15-year-old girl died in Bakers Park in Newton Abbot, Devon, in the early hours of the morning after taking a suspected new psychoactive substance.

With concerns that this tragic incident could happen at Foxdenton Park, residents are hoping Greater Manchester Police will step up efforts in putting an end to the binges and are urging Oldham Council to make the park more secure at night.

One concerned resident, who wished not to be named, said: "It is ongoing now for three months. Each weekend there is 30 to 40 youths between the ages of 13 and 16 who go into the park.

"This Saturday they went in at 5pm and they left at 7am on the Sunday. There was drug dealing and there were cars pulling up and handing our drugs."

She said: "The next day we went for a walk and the park was littered with alcohol bottles, happy gas canisters and barbecues, it was an absolute mess.

"To be going home at 7am is absolutely ridiculous, we are trying to get a side entrance closed so they can't just sneak in. Every weekend we have spoken to councillors and GMP but it just carries on, does it take one of these children to die from doing the drugs before it is stopped?

"When the weather was nice the other weekend we heard a guy pull up and ask them if they wanted to do drugs. We've tried speaking to environmental health because these drugs and gas canisters get left and if a dog or a child goes and picks something up it could harm it."

She added: "Foxdenton Hall is a mess, they have had to board up all the windows because they are getting smashed and the kids are going onto the roof of the bowling green building. It only takes one of them to go onto the building and then fall through it."

Rev John Simmons, Chair of Chadderton Together Save Foxdenton Hall campaign, said: "If these reports are true then it is very sad indeed. Chadderton Together has worked very hard for some time now to preserve and renovate the hall for future generations, and it will be very sad if this reported vandalism goes any way to frustrating our efforts to save Foxdenton Hall. I trust that if criminal activity is taking place the police will seek to deal with it urgently."

An Oldham Council spokesman said: "The park can be entered from the fields at the bottom end. However, we will share this information with the district team and colleagues in the police.

"We will also see if we can get officers from the Outreach Youth Service to attend."

Greater Manchester Police Chadderton said that they are aware of the incidents and it is part of Chadderton's Neighbourhood Patrol Plan.