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Leighton High Street's biggest store bans school children
Kids stealing has been a problem.
One of Leighton's most popular shops has banned thousands of the town's school-children from its High Street store after suffering some of the worst shop-lifting and unruly behaviour found anywhere in its national chain.
Every student from Cedars and Vandyke Upper Schools and Leighton Middle School has been barred from entering the 99p Stores after it has suffered months of bad behaviour.
Notices went up in the shop windows on Friday naming and shaming the three schools. The bar will last a month before being reviewed.
The 99p Stores'a commercial director Hussein Lalani said the move had been made reluctantly but had been taken in the best interests of other customers.
He told the LBO: "This is an unfortunate decision that we have had to make.
"We have had to take action in banning them in light of their behaviour over the last couple of months.
"We have been working with the police community support officers in trying to deal with unruly behaviour and shop-lifting. We have already banned 60 individuals for various incidents of theft.
"We don't like to ban anyone as they are our potential customers but this has been one of the worst cases suffered by any of our shops anywhere in the country.
"We always expect to ban the odd individual but this action – in blanket banning three schools - has been unique."
Mr Lalani said that on occasions gangs of uniformed children had steamed into the shop and filled their backpacks with merchandise while others distracted staff.
He said that only those children in uniform who are accompanied by their parents would be allowed into the building.
One angry Cedars mum, who has two daughters aged 14 and 15, was furious at the ban.
"Why should my girls be barred from the shop just because of the bad behaviour of a small minority?
"I'm not at all happy that all the students are being blamed. They will be doing themselves a disservice because this is bound to affect trade."
Andrew Warren, head-teacher at Cedars, said all students had been told in their assemblies about the censure.
He said: "I have had the area manager and the shop manager of the store in to see me.
"One of the problems is that between 4pm and 4.30pm there's a large number of students who go into the store on their way home and staff were finding it difficult to supervise them.
"I fully understand that and their point of view. We want to maintain good relations with the businesses in the town.
"We want the school to have a good name. Sometimes just because there is a group of teenagers people feel intimidated without them actually doing anything."
Tim Carroll, head-teacher at Vandyke, said: "I have sympathy for the situation of the shop-owners if students are creating a problem. We're happy to co-operate with the police.
"Our students will be spoken to in their assemblies this week. We want to co-operate. I hope we can work together to alleviate the situation and understand the problem better.
"The vast majority of students do not behave badly. We don't want to give the impression that all young people are behaving in an anti-social manner."
Anne Thompson, head-teacher of Leighton Middle, knew nothing of the ban until the LBO broke the news.
"A senior member of staff has now visited the shop to discuss the issue. I am very sad and shocked if this is the case. The vast majority of children are responsible and sensible.
"We take this matter extremely seriously. It is a sad reflection if one or two children have caused problems in the shop."
One shop where the youngsters are welcome is the newly opened sweet shop in Bridge Street called The Sweetest Thing.
Manager, Diane Bailey, said: "We have been opened four weeks and the children who come in behave impeccably.
"We have an extra member of staff on mornings and afternoons to cope with the rush but we don't restrict numbers and we don't ask students to leave their bags outside.
"They are always extremely well behaved and polite. They queue to be served and we have never had a problem. They are more than welcome here."
*What do you think of the shop's ban? Contact the LBO either through the website or via email to news@lbobserver.co.uk
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Saturday 04 February 2012
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