BRITISH TEENAGERS, DIGBY PARK AND ME

27-08-2007

Revelations about Britain's gang culture in the wake of the shooting of 11-year old Rhys Jones have generated another round of hand-wringing about how we raise our kids. Birmingham Councillor Martin Mullaney offers a distinctive perspective on bringing up youngsters.

"Britain has a real problem with its teenagers. British teenagers are more likely to get into fights, hang out with other teenagers, binge drink, take drugs and have underage and un-protected sex than teenagers is most other European countries." So says a recent press release by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr). (See link here)

All the British tabloid and broad sheet newspaper agree with the above statement, but depending on which one you read the fault lies either with single parent families, the permissive 60s, police bureaucracy gone mad and so on.

I however agree with the ippr when they continue in their press release to say the fault is as follows:

"British teenagers spend more time 'hanging out' with their mates and less time with adults, while British adults are less likely to intervene to stop teenagers committing vandalism and other anti-social behaviour."

Teenagers since time began have ‘hung out' with other teenagers and will continue to do so forever. However, in Britain the trend to remove any adult presence from teenager life's has been caused by a desire to keep Council costs down, which has resulted in youth clubs closing and making public parks and spaces teenager only zones.

This increasing removal of any adult presence around teenagers means that the teenagers don't know or are made to know the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.

The removal of adults from parks is best illustrated by the decline of my childhood park - Digby Park in Small Heath, Birmingham.

I was born in 1966 in Small Heath and spent almost every day in Digby Park from 1974 till 1978. Small Heath was then, as it is now, an inner city working class suburb suffering from high economic deprivation. It consists of rows of tightly packed Edwardian terrace houses.

My elder brother and sister used Digby Park before me and always reminded me how it was when they used it in the 1960s.

Here is a satellite photo of what Digby Park looks like now - see pic here

Here is a modified photo showing a plan of Digby Park in 1977 - see pic here

When I used Digby Park it was already in free fall decline, but I was lucky enough to see the last few years of an era when parks were for all the community and not just teenagers.

Comparing the park between now and 1977 it is immediately obvious how empty it now appears. Gone is the on-site park keeper and the bowling green, which the pensioners used.

Gone is the Sons of Rest building, which contained two snooker tables and was used by World War One veterans. Gone are the trees that were climbable - which was most of them.

Digby Park has been stripped bare and is now nothing more than an open grass area. Indeed, they may as well put a sign on the entrance saying "Teenagers Only, there's nothing of interest here for grown ups"

In financial terms the park is cheaper than ever to run, but at what cost? Stripping bare Digby Park has been repeated across Birmingham. Parks that were once for the whole community have now become teenager only zones, where the only adults seen are those walking the dogs.

The decline for Digby Park started in the mid-1960s when Council got rid of the resident gardeners. Digby Park used to have formal flowerbeds in the mid-1960s, but these had long been trampled out of existence by the time I started using the park.

In 1974, the last bowl was bowled on the bowling green.

By 1978, the park keeper was gone and the thugs took over the park. I then stopped using it.

The Sons of Rest building lasted a few more years, but with the park keeper gone, the vandals took over. First the park keepers hut was burnt down, followed by the Sons of Rest building.

The park keepers hut was a wonderful Arts and Crafts octagonal brick and pebbledash hut - many a day we played tag around this hut.

The Sons of Rest building was built, like so many others in Birmingham's parks, in the 1920's as social clubs for veterans of World War I. The only one I know that still exists is in Cannon Hill Park.

So what did having all these adults around mean - as young children we still played and hung out together? What it did mean is that we knew our boundaries of behaviour.

If I climbed a tree with the park keeper around he would come storming over and threaten to book us - three bookings and the police visited your parents. No physical handling was needed. The park keeper used an assertive voice, and we obeyed him.

When we kicked balls against the Sons of Rest building, one the pensioners would come out shouting and we stopped.

For every anti-social action, we soon realized there was a reaction. We learnt our boundaries.

If we are to reverse the declining behavior of British teenagers then we need to look at what activities we provide them and ensure these activities show them the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

The easiest place to start would our parks. It will cost money in employing park keepers and gardeners. It will also cost money to re-introduce adult sporting activities back into these parks eg a jogging and fitness circuit.

But in return we will save money on repairing vandalism and live in a more crime free city.