COUNCIL leader Mehboob Khan has urged parents to take responsibility for their children following a series of disturbances on Tuesday night.
Clr Khan, who witnessed several of the incidents in Sheepridge, said parents had a duty to know where their children were at night.
He said: “The message to parents is: ‘Where are your children at night?’ You have a responsibility for them.”
The Kirklees leader said communities were angry at the action of a ‘small criminal element’.
Clr Khan said: “They are very angry that a small criminal element had caused this sort of damage to their community and has brought unwanted attention to the community who had worked hard over the last decade to restore confidence and pride.
“These young people have attacked their own facilities in their own backyard and are depriving themselves and their community.
“There is no purpose behind this and there is no support for this from anyone.”
Ken Smith, who has been a councillor for Ashbrow and Birkby since 1984, branded the vandals ‘troublemakers looking for opportunities’.
Clr Smith toured his ward with fellow councillors Jean Calvert and council leader Mehboob Khan during the disturbances.
He said: “We’ve enough local idiots.
“Hopefully they’ll be some arrests when the CCTV is analysed.
“It was just troublemakers looking for opportunities.”
But Clr Smith said the incidents were very minor compared to the Sheepridge riots of the mid-1980s.
He said: “It was disturbing but nothing like the scale we saw before.
“It was isolated incidents with small groups of teenagers.
“I’ve seen worse disorders than that.”
