Children 'detained' after climbing onto Bolton school roof

Police officers were called to a school in the Astley Bridge area last night, June 1, after reports of children on its roof.

They detained a number of children and visited their homes to "speak to them in front of their parents/guardians". 

GMP has not specified which school they climbed onto. 

A spokesperson for GMP's Bolton North Neighbourhood Team said: "This evening, police received reports of children on the roof of a school in Astley Bridge.

Police detained children after they climbed onto a roof (Image: GMP)

"Officers from the Bolton North Neighbourhood Team attended the location immediately and detained a number of children.

"We will be visiting their homes to speak to them in front of their parent/guardian and we will work with Bolton Council's Community Safety Team to prevent them causing further anti-social behaviour in the area again. 

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"The community have told us that anti-social behaviour is a concern for them around the Astley Bridge area and we will continue to proactively patrol the area to deter anti-social behaviour and deal with those involved." 

Cllr Hilary Fairclough (Image: Bolton Council)

Now, ward councillor Hilary Fairclough has said that although youth provision in the area is limited, there is "no excuse" for children to partake in such behaviour. 

Cllr Fairclough said: "I do acknowledge we need to look at youth provision, but there is no excuse for children going onto any roof, for their safety, and also if they are vandalising things. 

"People shouldn't allow them to feel like there is nothing else to do - not having anything else to do is not a reason to go on a school roof. 

"But I do accept more needs to be done. We need to find out more what they actually want rather than dictating what they have. 

"We have had issues with this over the years, but they have been few and far between." 

This is not the first time that Bolton has had issues with youths scaling roofs. 

A "group" of young people climbed on top of a derelict Breightmet pub last year, with firefighters and police being called out. 

Also last year, children scaled the roof of All Saints Primary School in Farnworth. Two boys were caught on CCTV footage on top of the school building.