It’s old fashioned policing but it just may change one youngster’s mind about anti-social behaviour.

A beat bobby in the Colne Valley detained a teenager after a planter full of flowers was kicked over into the road at Heights near Blackmoorfoot.

The planter is one of many now being put around the borders of Linthwaite by the group Pride in Linthwaite so the policeman thought it a good idea to see if the group had something the teenager could do to make amends.

They did and the boy in his teens had to get rid of graffiti which vandals have sprayed on telecom boxes around the area.

The telecoms box at Chapel Hill in Linthwaite that was cleaned of graffiti by a teenager who had kicked a planter into the road

Pride in Linthwaite member Malcolm Coton said: “It was a far better way of dealing with the youngster than him getting any kind of criminal record. He’d not been in trouble before and his mum was in tears when she found out what he’d done as it was so out of character.

“He had kicked the planter in the road at night so we had to go up there to sort it out straightaway.”

The youngster had to clean up the telecoms box at Chapel Hill in Linthwaite and it’s a not an easy task as he needed gloves, nail varnish, scouring pads and a damp cloth.

“He did a good job,” said Malcolm. “But more importantly he got to meet the group and find out what we are trying to do to improve the community. He was very apologetic for what he’d done.”