TOWNS across the country which are struggling to cope with troublemakers are being told to look at the work being done in the Accrington area.

Its success in dealing with offenders through Anti-Social Behaviour Orders has been heralded as the way forward by the Home Office, as David Higgerson reports.

When police inspector Dale Allen took over at Accrington Police Station just over a year ago, he had several aims.

One was to make Accrington town centre a safer place for people to shop.

Now, as Insp Allen prepares to leave Accrington to move to another post, he feels that the last 12 months have seen the town's police force go some way to achieving that.

Crime, he says, has been reduced, although he is reluctant to release figures just yet because he believes ideas just taking off will push the numbers down further.

Traders, too, say they feel safer now that several known troublemakers have been kicked out of town.

These troublemakers have been removed through the use of Anti Social Behaviour Orders, a new power given to the police and councils under the Crime and Disorder Act.

They give magistrates the power to ban people from doing things or going places -- with the risk of up to five years in prison if they step out of line.

Accrington, and indeed Hyndburn, doesn't appear to be the sort of place which would end up being used as an example for how to use the orders but it has now issued five.

And the Home Office is now telling others areas to look at Hyndburn and what they have achieved.

It is beating London's boroughs and even pioneering cities like Liverpool. Two of the orders banned people from Accrington town centre, curtailing their crime and disorder habits there.

Insp Allen said: "While I can't comment on whether their banning from the town centre has meant a fall in crime, I can say it has made people feel a lot safer.

"We applied for these ASBOs with the intention of using them to make people feel safer. People felt terrorised by one of the people and many had complaints against the other.

"We have used them to help people feel safe and that is part of the battle won."

The two in question are Michael Aspin, 26, who was banned from the town centre after a court was told he had committed 105 offences there and scared the living daylights out of traders.

The other, Lee Finglass, 18, was a major nuisance after dark and now can't enter the town centre after 9pm.

Other ASBOs have been taken out away from the town centre but have the same aim -- to make people feel safer.

The first in Hyndburn centred on Charles Street, Oswaldtwistle. Michael Kirby, 49, moved out of the street after having a two year order put on him banning him from causing an nuisance to his neighbours.

The order ended 19 years of misery for people on the street, who now say things are much better.

Then came Lee Birkett, 17, whose drunken behaviour in Great Harwood was distressing residents and shopkeepers alike.

The order banning him from drinking in public and buying alcohol resulted in him moving to Blackburn.

He says he was forced to leave -- locals say things are much better since he left. And last month, Razwan Sarwar, 26, faced the possibility of being banned from every GP's surgery in Hyndburn after magistrates asked them to sign up to a new ASBO which meant that if he entered their premises, he would be jailed.

Civil liberty groups claim ASBOs infringe human rights but Insp Allen is adamant that is not the case. Along with other initiatives -- like dedicating officers to certain sections of town and giving town centre patrols more presence with bright jackets -- he believes ASBOs preserve the rights of the innocent.

He said: "The Human Rights Act says that if someone is making someone's life a misery, they could lose some rights if it makes things better overall.

"These people have caused major problems and things are so much better since the orders came into effect."

Aspin was jailed after being caught in Asda just weeks after being banned. Insp Allen said: "That showed the magistrates were prepared to get tough on offenders.

"We have a council prepared to work with us and we are holding more case conferences to see who else can be tackled and hit with an ASBO.

"We aren't stopping now."

A spokesman for Hyndburn council said: "We are pleased to use ASBOs with the police to improve the quality of life for people in the borough."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope added: "I am pleased Hyndburn is leading the way with ASBOs.

"In my surgeries throughout the borough, I continually see people whose lives have been blighted by anti-social behaviour.

"This sends a message to people that such behaviour will not be tolerated and there is something which can be done about it."