Police in Middlewich have issued 22 anti-social behaviour warnings to parents about their children as part of a crackdown in the town.

Sergeant Craig Hodson said police were working with schools and Cheshire East Council's anti-social behaviour team to identify youngsters responsible and deal with the problem.

"Since February 1 in Middlewich alone we've issued 22 anti-social behaviour warning letters," the sergeant told the town council at Monday night's meeting.

He said a strict three stage procedure is then followed in case officers need to go to court to get a criminal behaviour order.

Initially a letter goes to the parents, signed by police and the council, warning of what happens next if the behaviour continues.

"If they receive a second letter to parents they get invited into the police station, which has already happened twice in the last month, and we have an acceptable behaviour discussion with parents and children," said Sgt Hodson.

"Once we go to stage three they have an acceptable behaviour contract, which is a 12-month contract of their behaviour which stipulates laws and rules that they must abide by.

"If we need to get a criminal behaviour order at court we need to have followed this pathway."

One member of the public at Monday's meeting said most anti-social behaviour was alcohol-fuelled.

He said police need to find out from the children where they buy the alcohol and those shops or off-licences must be dealt with.

Chief Inspector Claire Jesson, head of Congleton Local Policing Unit, said: "I can assure you that happens.

"We also do spot checks with trading standards where trading standards will have young children to go in and try to purchase alcohol at off-licences and supermarkets. That happens regularly."

The police boss said there was a scheme running across Cheshire regarding the Safer Women at Night initiative.

"We had extra patrols out during night time economy hours to make sure people feel safe walking home and a big part of that is licensing checks," she said.

"I personally did Middlewich in the run-up to Christmas. We paid for a drugs detection dog to come with us.

"I walked through all the pubs in the town centre, checked the licence, we checked they had relevant signs and posters up, we checked around alcohol sales, we searched the areas with the dogs for any drugs for any potential drink spikings, so we are quite stringent on it."

She said if anyone had any information about premises selling to children, they should pass the information to the PCSO or ring 101 and it can be followed up.

The chief inspector also said the number of reports of anti-social behaviour in the town had fallen.

She told the council there had been 33 reports since January 1 compared to more than 100 for the same period last year – although did say some of those in 2021 were Covid reports.

With regard to other Middlewich crime figures, the chief inspector said there had been one burglary of a dwelling reported since January 1 and three counts of vehicle crime.