WORCESTER is a city made up of two distinct worlds.

There is the planet known as daytime, when people of all age groups go about their business in a reasonable, orderly fashion.

Then there is the darker moon that is night, inhabited by a totally different species of human organism.

Walking through Sidbury up to the Elgar statue and into High Street, it is often difficult to imagine how these same thoroughfares will appear within only a few hours.

Still, there are clues to what lies ahead, for like a beach when the tide’s out, there still remains the flotsam that hints at what existed during high water mark. Discarded cigarette ends, chewing gum, the odd beer can or two that’s been missed by council workmen… Actually, Worcester’s no different from any other British town or city these days. Two worlds, one inhabited by the general populace and the other the sole domain of adolescents.

Britain is the only country in this hemisphere to have allowed its streets to be hijacked in this way.

After eight o’clock at night, most adults have vanished and made way for the nocturnal hybrid of the race.

Youths with amounts of leisure time their parents could only have dreamt of patrol and skulk in the immense, glorified playpen that was once a city centre.

The over-40s who venture into this hostile kindergarten will almost certainly travel to their destination by car. Yet even these precautions will not necessarily protect them from potential hassle as they are still obliged to cross Deansway to reach the college car park.

Some parts of Worcester are now basically no-go areas at night.

The authorities would deny this to the hilt, yet would be pressed to deny that what is normality in Europe is unknown here.

The answer is, of course, to adopt the policy of zero tolerance that has been such a success elsewhere in the world. It wouldn’t have to be all that repressive, either – just a return to the policing style of just a few years ago would probably do the trick.

One thing is for certain. Either we accept being prisoners of our own children or we take that first step in reclaiming the streets.