Anyone who is arriving at Sunderland via train on an evening will be aware of the familiar scene of the new entrance having become an effective playground for teenagers.
By 5pm every day, the multi million pound new facility has become flooded with youths who loiter around, fight, argue and even ride their bikes across the station.
The reason this happens is because it is a large and perpetually open spacious building. It has become a gathering point. This has also become a source of trouble in and of itself.
Time after time, the toilets of the new entrance have been put out of order as the teenagers present subsequently vandalise them by blocking the drainage and engaging in other malign activities.
Given the facility has already been under intense criticism and the subject of cynicism by many locals over its design, this is hardly a confidence inducing outcome or anything that inspires a good first impression of Sunderland.
This didn’t happen in the also loathed (and not missed) former station entrance, namely as there wasn’t the seating or open space to do so.
The current arrangement, despite being intended to be an improvement, has thus become a massive situational problem and a conduit for anti social behaviour. The youths see it as convenient, whereas everyone else sees their presence as inconvenient.
We need to ask now where is security? Where are efforts to move these non-passenger young people on? And to protect the facility?
Our railway station is not a playground for young people and delinquency. More must be done to secure and manage the facility because this has become a massive liability to the city centre.