A COUNCIL today pledged to work with youngsters to halt complaints of "Goths and Moshers" intimidating shoppers in Blackburn town centre.

Blackburn with Darwen Council said it would send officers to talk to the teenagers, who congregate on Church Street every Saturday, to find a solution.

And Sgt Phil Davies whose beat is Blackburn town centre said he is also working on a solution which he hopes will see the teenagers meeting in another part of the town centre where they do not trouble others.

The issue was first brought up at an executive board meeting of the Chamber of Trade when shopping centre manager Arnold Wilcox-Wood said the teenagers were causing a nuisance and demanded they be moved on by police.

But Blackburn town centre manager Tony Fitzgerald said he didn't want a knee-jerk reaction to the problem and vowed to look a the wider issue.

New measures for police to disperse groups of people who have gathered in an area designated an anti-social hotspot by the local council have been included in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 which came into force on Tuesday.

Andy Kay, executive member for regeneration for the council said: "We have been working with our partners, the police, since this issue was raised.

"However, they have received no complaints from the public regarding the behaviour of these young people. We are, however, aware that large groups can be intimidating.

"We hope to build on the partnership's problem solving approach and work with the young people and shop owners to solve this problem.

"We encourage all law-abiding members of the community to use the town centre."

Ronnie O'Keefe, acting vice-president of Blackburn Chamber of Trade, backed the council in their attempts to find a solution -- but said he wanted results.

He said: "We back the way they want to go about it as long as there is an outcome to it.

"We know they are trying to talk to them but if that doesn't work perhaps they should use a heavy-handed approach."

He added: "I am sure there is somewhere where they can meet in a better environment and play their music and meet all their friends under cover and not on Blackburn's newest pedestrianised street.

"A solution has got to come up and really it needs youth workers to go out there and talk to them to find out what they what.

"Every Saturday it is becoming the same. It cannot go on."

Sgt Davies said: "We are working on a solution which we are hoping will work this weekend.

"We are working with a couple of partners in the town centre to find place where these young people can go and be able to enjoy themselves out of the way of others."