Stafford Teenagers Fined £100 Under Town Centre Group Rule

Four teenage boys have been fined £100 each for gathering in a group and causing trouble in Stafford town centre. Stafford Borough Council says more fines will follow in the next few days.

Council and police officers went to the boys’ homes to hand over the fixed penalty notices, the council said on Monday. The notices were given either to the boys or to their parents, and the parents were there when they were issued. (Stafford Borough Council, 12 October)

What the council says happened

The fines follow a run of complaints about groups of boys aged 13 to 16. The council says they have been intimidating shoppers, residents and visitors in the town centre. It lists:

• throwing eggs at passing cars
• attacking cyclists
• assaulting people

The four boys live in the Littleworth, Highfields, Doxey and Holmcroft areas of Stafford. The council has not named them, and nor will we. It says it has since been given information about more young people involved and will visit them too.

“Good, law-abiding residents are absolutely sick and tired of seeing these feral youths run amok and seemingly getting away with it,” said Councillor Jill Hood, the cabinet member for communities. She said the boys had been spoken to and pointed towards other things to do in the evenings, “but that’s obviously not working”.

“So we will use what powers we have as a local authority and hit them with fixed penalties. If they don’t pay, then we will prosecute,” she said. She added that she hoped parents and guardians “will be disgusted at what their children have been doing”.

The rule they broke

The fines were issued under the borough’s Public Spaces Protection Order, the set of street rules that has covered the whole borough since 7 December 2023. The council says the boys breached it by being in a group of five or more causing anti-social behaviour.

The sealed order itself is shorter than that. Its loitering condition reads:

Any person is prohibited from loitering or otherwise gathering in groups of five or more within the pedestrianised areas of Stafford and Stone town centres.

(Public Spaces Protection Order 2023, full sealed copy)

Breaking the order without a reasonable excuse is an offence. The order sets the fixed penalty at up to £100. Anyone who goes to court instead faces a fine of up to level 3 on the standard scale, which is £1,000.

The rule is about to change

The 2023 order expires on 6 December. In the summer the council consulted on a renewed order that would drop the five-or-more threshold entirely, so the loitering rule would apply to behaviour causing anti-social disturbance anywhere in the borough, not only to groups in the two pedestrianised centres. We reported the proposals in August.

The council has since said that about 390 people responded and that 92% backed the new face coverings rule, which comes in with the renewed order in December. It has not yet said whether the loitering change goes ahead as proposed, and the sealed 2026 order has not been published. The council’s PSPO page still carries only the 2023 order and the separate A34 car cruising order.

The police operation the week before

The fines come a fortnight after Staffordshire Police put dispersal orders on Stafford and Stone town centres from 4pm on Friday 2 October to 4pm on Sunday 4 October. The orders let officers move people on from set areas.

The force said that week that officers had arrested four young people. It said one had been charged with public order and assault offences, and two other teenagers were in custody on suspicion of similar offences. (Staffordshire Police, 2 October)

“Anti-social behaviour and violence have no place in our borough,” said Inspector Dan Egerton, deputy commander for the Stafford Borough local policing team.

The council’s release does not say whether the four boys fined are among those arrested, and we have not assumed they are.

What the figures show

Police.uk records back up the complaints. In the Stafford Town neighbourhood, which covers the town centre, anti-social behaviour reports from March to August came to 341 this year, up from 214 over the same months of 2025. That is a rise of 59%.

The figures come from our own count of police.uk street-level data for the neighbourhood. Our Stafford crime figures page has the full breakdown, including the rise in violence, public order offences and bike theft, and the streets where reports cluster.

What it means for you

• The group rule applies now, in the pedestrianised areas of Stafford and Stone town centres, until the current order expires on 6 December.
• If your child is given a notice, it is £100. The council says unpaid notices will be prosecuted, where the fine can be up to £1,000.
• To report anti-social behaviour, call Staffordshire Police on 101, or 999 if someone is in danger. The council’s community safety team takes reports on 01785 619000 or communitysafety@staffordbc.gov.uk.
• From December, the renewed order brings in the face coverings rule, with a £100 fine for refusing to remove a covering worn to cause trouble. We will report the full rules when the council publishes the sealed order.

For parking near the town centre, see our parking in Stafford page.