RESIDENTS living on the Wharton estate in Winsford have been terrorised by a small group of youths since last autumn.

The area suffered 30 arson attacks in November and December and at its worst, a petrol bomb was posted through a letter box, destroying a vacant terraced house.

Last month, firefighters were attacked with a gang throwing bottles, stones and fireworks after responding to one incident, and the situation has left residents asking: ‘what is being done to stop the minority from destroying the area?’

I went out on the Wharton estate with police officers, firefighters and Weaver Vale Housing Trust on Friday - the day after two more deliberate fires - to look at the problems facing them and to ask, on behalf of the residents, how are they tackling the problem.

From the moment we walked onto the estate, it was clear that the anti-social problems are being caused by the minority, with every resident we passed looking delighted to see officers on the beat.

But the actions of the few are obvious wherever you look, from charcoaled walls and grass, burnt out bins, and the boarded up house that was destroyed by arsonists on Bonfire Night.

“It’s not a war zone up here - it’s a small number of youths that are having a massive impact on life for other people,” said Sgt Dan Haddock.

Police have recently increased patrols in the area and have been escorting firefighters when responding to fires at night.

“The main difficulty we face as police is the geography of the estate,” said Sgt Haddock.

“As soon as we arrive after reports of an incident, they scurry off down the alleyways and it’s near impossible for us.

“We are trying to be proactive on the estate, but the trouble we have is that we can’t be everywhere at once. There are common areas for arson, such as Dee Way, and people say ‘it’s always at Dee Way, why can’t you just put patrols there?’, but then you just displace it. If we go to Dee Way, then the fires will crop up somewhere else.

“We don’t want to just move it on, we want to stamp it out completely and we need the help of residents to do that. We did a leaflet drop but we had a poor response, so we want to get across that people can contact us and they don’t have to give their details.”

There has been a noticeable decline in the amount of incidents in recent weeks and Sgt Haddock said police believe this is down to the arrest of a ‘known ring-leader’.

Sgt Haddock said: “A known ring-leader has been arrested and remanded in custody and since then it’s quietened down a lot. It is still happening – not as much – but it is still happening, so we still need to do our best to tackle it and stamp it out.

“We are working closely with partner agencies and WVHT play a really important part. We’ve already served an ASB (anti-social behaviour) closure order on one property and the reports at that address have gone right down, and some have also been served with breach of tenancy notices.

“They aren’t just empty threats, if we have enough evidence we will take the strongest action we can and we have shown that already.”

Speaking about the incident in December, fire crew manager, Darren Hickson, told me that it has created the potential for a dangerous situation in the future.

He said: “You do get the odd firework thrown at you when going out to these calls but you know they aren’t meant for you. They’re thrown in your direction but land quite a bit away. But this time, I had Lambrini bottles flying past my head and one smash at my feet so we knew they were definitely aiming for us.

“We’ve now been getting police to come out with us on certain calls but it’s created a situation where firefighters may have to wait for a police escort before they can go on there to tackle the fire.”

Fire crews have started to post leaflets through doors and station manager Paul Watts emphasised the need to create a strong relationship with the community’s youngsters.

Paul said: “We are working on getting firefighters and our community safety team out to local schools because we really want to build that relationship with children.

“We lose contact with them at a certain age and it’s about building that back up. We want them to have some understanding and respect there when they get into adolescence, but that is a long-term goal.”

Paul explained that the best answer for stopping deliberate fires is for residents to help by clearing rubbish from in front of their houses.

Many of the deliberate fires have involved sofas, mattresses and general rubbish and pictures recently published by the Guardian showed that extent of the littering and fly-tipping.

The estate looked nothing like those pictures when I visited on Friday and that is down to a huge clear-up from Weaver Vale Housing Trust, who says it is committed to working with residents.

Sam Lloyd-Jones, tenancy enforcement officer, said: “We are committed to working with the local residents, the police, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and Cheshire West and Chester Council to ensure a joined up approach in tackling this anti-social and dangerous behaviour by a few individuals on the Crook Lane estate in Winsford.

“These communities are wider than Weaver Vale Housing Trust tenants and as such we must work together to end this cycle of behaviour.”

The message from all who joined me on the estate was clear. They are not happy with a small decline in the number of arson attacks and anti-social behaviour incidents.

Police, fire officers, and the housing association will continue to work together until the issue is eradicated, but they need the residents to do their bit to take back ownership of their friendly estate.

Contact police on 101 and with any information and ask for Sgt Dan Haddock or email Sgt Haddock directly at daniel.haddock@cheshire.pnn.police.uk.