Birkenhead MP Frank Field calls for residents to trigger arrests of yobs

Jun 24 2009 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

RESIDENTS could trigger the arrest of yobs terrorising their neighbourhood even if the police refused to act, under plans set out by a Mersey MP.

Birkenhead MP Frank Field called for a 1361 law – allowing local people to demand that a court issue a warrant – to be revived to fight the modern-day scourge of anti-social behaviour.

Under the ancient statute, offenders were brought before magistrates on the very day that neighbours complained, to stamp out the problem before it escalated.

The radical idea is the latest proposal put forward by Mr Field, who once called for “neighbours from hell” to be housed together in a concrete bunker under an M53 flyover.

The Labour backbencher helped inspire Tony Blair's 'Respect' agenda, which included stripping the worst neighbours of housing benefit for up to five years.

Explaining his latest plan, Mr Field said the police now had the powers they needed to deal with serious crime, but still failed to act on complaints of less-serious offending.

The price was paid by working-class communities who struggled to convince "largely middle-class officials, not only of their plight, but also of the need to take effective action".

Mr Field said: "We now need to empower residents to take action against yobbish behaviour before it escalates into serious crime.

"A century ago, disputes in working-class neighbourhoods were often settled informally before the magistrate.

“It is this system we need to revive.