Police warn 'problem' people as Southsea dispersal order back in place after kids pelted with rocks

An angry parent took to social media demanding to find parents of teenagers she said had lobbed rocks at her three children, aged three, six and nine at Hotwalls on Monday.

A dispersal order was subsequently issued on Tuesday at midday until 10pm on Wednesday amid fears of youths running amok in the area. The area covered South Parade Pier, Canoe Lake, Clarence Esplanade, Hotwalls and the Camber.

The force said its seasonal Op Nautical patrols were underway in areas blighted by anti-social behaviour during sunny weather. Portsmouth City Council said patrols had “increased” in popular locations.

Now, in a social media post today, police have announced they have the dispersal order back in place again amid concerns over more trouble. “Southsea Central and St Jude's Neighbourhoods team are on today to carry out extra high visibility patrols of the seafront to ensure your safety and to make sure your Saturday goes as smoothly as possible,” the post said.

“As the summer approaches we want to make sure that everyone can enjoy a little bit of the beach without anti-social behaviour and other negative factors getting in the way. We have a Section 34 Dispersal Order in place at the moment so if there are any issues we can deal with them by removing the problems at the source.”

The force said previously of the dispersal order: “The dispersal authority enables our officers to deal with any issues of anti-social behaviour in the directed area more effectively, and gives our officers the power to order a person to leave the area with no return within the specified time period.

“Those who refuse to comply with the order are committing a criminal offence and are liable for arrest. Individuals who are aged under 16 will be taken to their home address, and follow-up work will be done with parents.”

The angry mum whose children were pelted with rocks said previously: “After asking (the youths) nicely to stop they continued to throw stones towards us and then decided to make their way over to shout abuse at us in front of the children.

“We asked them to leave us alone. It got pretty heated between us. We were waiting to get into our car and they decided to follow us and continue to scream and shout at us.

“I shouldn’t have to ask them to stop. It shouldn’t happen in the first place. disgusting behaviour.”