YOUTH nuisance and problems linked to alcohol and drugs will be tackled head-on in the Radcliffe Action Plan.

The plan aims to improve safety, health, transport and facilities for young people, to make the town a better place to live.

It will set targets to cut problems associated with alcohol and drugs by enforcing drinking bans and a stricter enforcement of the sale of booze to under-age drinkers.

Gangs of youths on the streets will be targeted by encouraging more parental training and control and through outreach work by the youth service and police.

It is hoped that the number of incidents involving youth nuisance will fall by ten per cent by 2008.

The use of CCTV will be developed in Radcliffe to help target crime hotspots. Trees masking cameras will be pruned to improve the view and community groups such as Homewatch will be developed.

In a bid to halve the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads by 2010 the enforcement of speed limits will be improved and more traffic-calming measures will be added to roads.

The Bury health survey, carried out in 2002, showed that 36.1 per cent of people in Radcliffe smoked. The plan aims to introduce more smoke-free areas and develop healthy lifestyle initiatives with the help of the Active Radcliffe sports strategy.

Further education and the offer of free contraception is proposed to help halve the number of teenage pregnancies by 2010, through the support of various health care and information providers like Connexions.

Facilities will be improved to create more opportunities for young people in the town. These could include longer opening hours and weekend access to sports centres and youth clubs.

In a bid to cut by ten per cent the number of recorded incidents by youths in the next three years, young people will be included in developing their own ideas for activities and facilities.

As part of the Radcliffe regeneration project, derelict properties are to be renovated and housebuyers will be encouraged to live in the town centre through better quality housing, and more community housing developments. The lack of decent affordable housing was raised by the Residents Survey of 2004.

Radcliffe waterways will be made into a visitor attraction with a clean-up completed by 2010. A strategy will clean up the river through different groups, including British Waterways, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Society and the Environment Agency.