New figures show that anti-social behaviour in the Staffordshire Moorlands increased by 30 per cent last year.

Staffordshire Police recorded 1,175 incidents of ASB in the Moorlands in 2025/26, up from 895 in the previous year.

The local policing team's annual report showed the Sainsbury's in Biddulph and Leek bus station were among the biggest ASB hotspots.

Scrutiny committee members at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council were told about the force's efforts to tackle these hotspots and persistent issues such as off-road biking.

Neighbourhood policing commander Chief Inspector Cliff Goodwin said that while the overall ASB figure show an increase in 2025/26, the actual situation is more 'nuanced', with part of the rise due to changes in recording practices.

He also told the community overview and scrutiny panel that action taken to deal with ASB had seen positive results.

Ch Insp Goodwin said: "When you break it down, community nuisance reports – the largest category of ASB – have actually decreased by three per cent across the policing area, which is a positive.

"We have identified four key hotspots. At Sainsbury's in Biddulph we had a core group of young people who were causing persistent ASB. We put in place multi-agency responses, with youth offending services involved and some monitoring by our violence reduction team, target hardening measures within the store, an increase in visibility and use of section 34 powers.

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"All those individuals were dealt with, and we're also exploring criminal behaviour orders to try and prevent re-occurrences of those problems.

"Reports have dropped from 29 all the way down to just one in the last reporting period. It represents good problem solving."

Ch Insp Goodwin said the force had seen similar success in tackling youth-related ASB and off-road biking at the bus station and Brough Park in Leek, and in Church Road, Biddulph.

The panel heard that further action to tackle nuisance off-road biking would be carried out in the Moorlands over the summer as part of the force-wide Operation Reclaim.

This will include use of the fixed-wing police plane to track bikers to their home addresses from a safe distance, as well as the use of 'smart spray' to mark offenders.

Ch Insp Goodwin added: "These people have to be very lucky every time they go out on their bikes. When we run our operations we only have to be lucky once to catch them. The odds are against offending behaviour."

The panel was also told the Moorlands local policing team had secured 11 criminal behaviour orders over the past year in order to tackle 'prolific' shoplifting, including one issued to a 13-year-old. According to the report, there has since been a 32 per cent reduction in shoplifting.

Councillor John Jones called for stronger police action against offenders, saying that Biddulph had been like the 'wild west' in recent weeks.

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He said: "What about zero tolerance? All these orders to me aren't that effective. If someone is committing a crime, they don't need a dispersal order – lock them up. Charge them. And they don't do it again."

Councillor Nigel Yates raised concerns that some people in Biddulph were put off going to Sainsbury's in the evening due to the anti-social behaviour issues.

He said: "You go in their on a rainy night, behind the cashpoints where there's a big void, it's like a youth club. Sainsbury's have got a problem displacing them. If you've got 30 of them there, one of two of them are going to be disruptive – most of them might just be sat there sharing a bag of Haribo."

In 2025/26, recorded crime in the Moorlands fell by 16.9 per cent, representing 1,049 offences, although overall crime remained stable. But the number of calls to the police increased by nine per cent, driven by a rise in public safety and welfare-related reports.