SHOCKED officials of Radcliffe's popular Girls' and Boys' Club have abandoned evening functions after yobs went on a wrecking spree during a teenage birthday party.

But they stress that none of their youngsters were to blame. The Withins Avenue premises had been rented out to accommodate a 14th birthday party.

During Saturday evening (June 13), police officers swooped on the club after neighbours complained of rowdy behaviour.

About 80 teenagers had turned up at the party. Although alcohol was banned, bottles and cans were discovered strewn about inside after being smuggled into the club.

Worker-in-charge Mrs Sue Milner has issued a full apology to neighbours following the disturbance.

She said: "We don't normally allow other people to use the club for evening functions. But we did so last weekend, just as a favour.

"The only other function held in the evening had been our 25th anniversary celebrations."

Mrs Milner arrived late on Saturday evening for what she believed would be a routine locking-up of the premises.

Youngsters were milling about outside, and inside she was shocked to discover that two toilet doors and two toilet seats had been vandalised and broken.

The generator had also been damaged and the whole place was a mess.

"I would like to stress to everyone that these youngsters were not members of the club," said Mrs Milner.

She was angry that alcohol had clearly been available inside the premises.

"This should never have happened," she said. "We certainly don't allow drink to be taken inside or consumed. That came as a particular shock to me."

The club allows members of the public to book the premises primarily for afternoon bouncy-castle birthday parties for children.

Evening functions will be completely banned in future. "This was really just a one-off," said Mrs Milner.

She will approach the organisers of the birthday party and attempt to recover the cost of the damage.

"I want to assure everyone this will not happen again," she stressed, "and we apologise for the trouble."

Inspector Nigel Bonson of Radcliffe police said: "We were called out to deal with some trouble at the premises. It was dealt with and there were no arrests."

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