Should Stroud teens paint a mural in the ‘druggy park’?

Take the Queen Elizabeth II Field in Dudbridge - Melanie Gray, who lives near the park, stumbled upon the aftermath of one such party earlier this month and shared it with the SNJ.

While walking her dog, she found balloons and canisters for nitrous oxide - laughing gas or ‘nox’ - littered across the park as well as empty bottles.

Nox litter found in QEII Field

The next week, police out on patrol gave out 14 dispersal orders to young people in the park, meaning they risked arrest if they returned within 24 hours.

Police on patrol in the park the next week

What do the actual teenagers make of it all? The SNJ has been chatting to them to find out.

And, by and large, we’ve heard one answer: “of course there are ‘drug-fuelled raves’ - what else is there for us to do in Stroud?”

A group of teenagers in Bank Gardens - or, as they call it, the ‘druggy park’ - had one idea for an alternative - they suggested they could paint a mural.

Where some teenagers suggested they could paint a mural in Bank Gardens

Teenagers tend to hang out at the top of the park around the benches on the raised platform, just before the steps up to St Laurence’s Church.

That’s where they would like to paint a mural, their logic being: if the space - the platform and benches - feels more like theirs, they would look after it better.

“We’ve done this at our schools - why can’t we do it here?” one of the teenagers told us.

What do you think? Would teenagers take better care of the park if they painted a mural? Or would it make no difference?

Vote in the poll below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.