THE gates of Fountain Fields will be kept closed overnight for the second summer in a row to keep anti-social behaviour at bay.

Middlewich Town Council agreed to lock the gates overnight during the summer holidays in 2019 following incidents involving youngsters drinking and vandalising the playground.

And with the facility reopening from lockdown, the gates will be kept locked overnight again each night from 8pm.

The decision will be reviewed by the time schoolchildren are set to return to school in September.

In a recent external committee meeting, Cllr Carol Bulman, said it was important to ‘set the tone that his is a careful space and we are not going to have riotous behaviour’, while Cllr David Latham described the move as a 'no-brainer'.

Fountain Fields underwent a £300,000 refurbishment in 2018, but the park was peppered with anti-social behaviour incidents last year.

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A teenage girl was taken to hospital after being found unresponsive by police called out to reports of underage drinkers last July, and a month later the park had to close when vandals trashed the bandstand.