GWENT Police has said they are stamping down on any repeats of anti-social behaviour that was seen in Chepstow over two weekends earlier this month.

On March 1 and March 8 about 60 young people between 12 and 18 who were drinking and smoking were found by community support officers under the A48 bridge and after being moved on some went to the Wye Bridge while most went up to the town centre.

And on March 8, an ambulance had to be called for a 16-year-old girl who was unconscious after she drunk too much alcohol.

Now Inspector Nick Hayes and CSOs Laura Price and Julian Phillips, who are based at the Chepstow Police Station on Moor Street, are leading a fight back so such events do not happen again as the weather improves over the spring and the summer.

Insp Hayes said: “It’s hard to gauge (why the disorder happened). But we do things with Trading Standards and they are positive.”

He said the last time Chepstow Trading Standards undertook checks on shops that could have been selling alcohol to underage drinkers in December, the response was “good” and no shops were found to have broken the law.

And a meeting was held with CSOs Price and Phillips and county councillors Cllrs Peter Farley and David Dovey on Saturday.

Cllr Farley said the meeting was “very helpful” and that the police’s operations were designed to “keep people on side”.

“We have said, as councillors, that we’ll look at one or two thing to improve the site.”

Network Rail own the land under the A48 bridge but the police are still waiting to hear on proposals they put forward about fencing the area off.

CSO Price said after the meeting that there was no trouble last Saturday and no evidence of underage drinking or litter.

She said: “Our frequent patrols will continue and we will deal with anti-social behaviour robustly. The past two weekends have been quiet, with no youths seen at the location, suggesting that the hard work that we have put in so far has been successful.”

Earlier this month released a press release through their Online Watch Link (OWL) that it was “accepted that young people need to socialise with their peer groups”, they must not behave in a manner that could cause “harassment, alarm or distress to others in the community.”