The trouble began in Meersbrook, a dis-trict of the poor northern town of Sheffield, in the autumn of 2003. At first it was just a group of teenagers loitering outside a shop on the corner of Valley Road and Brooklyn Road. But their numbers grew, swelled by an unruly family that had recently moved in nearby. Walls were soon covered with graffiti, fireworks were let off in the street and drug dealers began to tout for customers. "For Sale" signs appeared on local houses. A neighbourhood that had never been particularly cohesive seemed about to fall apart. Then, last August, the police secured a "dispersal order", which enabled them to break up groups of loiterers and return un-der-16s to their homes. They also asked six local people to sign contracts promising not to misbehave. The contracts have no legal force, but seem to have worked. The graffiti have gone, the gang is smaller and better mannered and, as Steve Kidder, a local shopkeeper, puts it, "we're gradually getting back to where we were."
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