COUNCILLORS have issued a warning about youngsters putting themselves in danger by skating in a town centre.

Councillor Shirley Dobbin urged the children to be more careful at an Upton Town Council meeting on Tuesday.

One resident claims the kids have been causing ‘havoc’ across the town and urged parents and teachers to take action to stamp out the behaviour.

Cllr Dobbin said: “Children are skating down the street. On and off the pavements. Someone will be hurt.

“It might take that for them to realise they shouldn’t be doing it. But we don’t want that.

“As the holidays come up more and more children will be doing it. The police did go last week to speak to some of the children in regards to how dangerous it is.

“Police will take them home. It’s the older children, Year 7s and 8s of Hanley [Castle High School].”

Ms Dobbin raised the prospect of writing a letter to the school’s headteacher Lindsey Cooke.

Cllr Betty Williams added: “They will get on my top step [in Old Street] on their scooter and go across the road, it doesn’t matter what’s coming.”

An Old Street resident added: “It’s half-term and they have nothing to do.

“We are assuming most are Hanley Castle [pupils] but some are not known locally.

“They have got scooters or skateboards and just ride around causing havoc, using foul language and playing chicken in the road.

“They think they are invincible but unfortunately they are not. They wait until the last minute to get out of the way of cars.

“They don’t realise how dangerous that could be, there’s big lorries coming through Upton.

“We have got quite a lot of heavy traffic. They have all got different stopping speeds, these kids don’t realise that.”

The resident added that she confronted a group of youths on their scooters in the town’s Co-op shop, just before Christmas.

She said: “If there was a parent teacher association at the school they should be able to put some pressure on.

“I think the school does have a little bit of responsibility to warn the children about personal safety.”

Other residents have reported children pulling wheelies into traffic.

PC Kevin Johns, of Upton Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “We have only received one correspondence from a local resident about children skating on the roads between 7pm and 8.30pm.

“Since receiving this information we have been monitoring the area at these times and other times when we are able to and have not seen any children causing any concerns.

“We have also engaged with local youths at the town’s youth club on a Friday night and warned them of the dangers. This was with the help of the local Baptist minister Paul McCabe and his colleagues that run the youth club.”

Hanley Castle High School was unavailable for comment.