SHOPPING chiefs today slammed young "Goths and Moshers" for intimidating shoppers in Blackburn town centre.

Arnold Wilcox-Wood, manager of Blackburn Shopping Centre, said the teenagers were causing a nuisance in Church Street every weekend and demanded they be moved on by police.

One 50-year-old female shopper said: "What the council have created with Church Street is a glorified playground. I walk down there and feel so intimidated."

Acting vice-president of the Chamber of Trade Ronnie O'Keefe agreed but the youngsters denied the accusations and said they want to meet their friends and not cause a nuisance. The call for action came on the day the Government launched its Anti-Social Behaviour Act.

It sees the introduction of controversial new police powers to disperse groups of people who have gathered in an area designated an anti-social hotspot by the local council.

But Blackburn with Darwen Council's 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.

Mr Wilcox-Wood told a meeting of the town's Chamber of Trade's executive: "I think it's a major concern.

"Every Saturday we are getting 60 Moshers or Goths and the police will not to do anything - they will not move them.

"It is intimidating for shoppers."

Mr O'Keefe said: "The police have got to come up with a zero tolerance policy and go there every day shifting them.

"What we want town for is shoppers."

Mr O'Keefe and Mr Wilcox-Wood said there had been complaints about skate-boarding and bikes being ridden on Church Street.

Mr Fitzgerald said with regards to the bikes and skate-boarding there are laws the council could enforce. But he said the youths congregating on the street were a different group to the bikers and skate-boarders.

He said: "Moving them is a simple solution to a more complex problem. I don't want to just have a knee-jerk reaction. I am aware that their behaviour is deterring some people.

"I want to speak to the young people themselves.

"It's a very, very sensitive issue. We are talking about a whole range of measures to deal with it. These are articulate kids from very good backgrounds."

One of the youths congregating in Church Street, Michael Tiley, 19, of Howard Close, Accrington, said: "We just come down here to hang around with friends, chat, go shopping. We used to go outside HMV but were told to move."

David Sanderson, 18, a student of Sudell Road, Darwen, said: "We get some young kids getting a bit out of hand. In the main the reaction has been way over the top. We hang around in large groups because we get 'townies' picking us off one by one. In a group we cannot be intimidated ourselves."

And Donna Leecy, 18, of New Chapel Street, Mill Hill, said: "We were originally outside the Cathedral, but got told to move from there. There is nowhere else for us to go."

PC Graham Davies, community beat manager for the town centre, said: "As long as they are not obstructing the entrances to the shopping centre they are not breaking any laws.

"However, their behaviour does tend to get worse as it gets later, because they get bored.

"I would urge all shopkeepers to let the police know of any problems and we will deal with them."