Why are feral youths riding around on electric bikes wearing balaclavas? - Ismail Mulla

However, this tortuous bus journey was something else. In fact, I hadn’t realised just how loud the screams were of these children until I’d got off the bus at my stop and walked 20 yards away. You could still hear them misbehaving.

The children were accompanied by their parents, who throughout the journey spent the time gawping at their mobile phones. Whenever one of the young ones asked for a little attention they swatted them away, adding to the anti-social din on the bus. One of the parents then proceeded to blast out music on her phone.

On an hour-long bus journey, it even tested my patience.

A few days later I was watching footage of feral youths clad in all black, faces covered in balaclavas (while the temperature has been slowly dropping, you wouldn’t exactly call it arctic), riding around on electric bikes evading police officers.

It made me think, how did these youths end up this way? Why are they even allowed to leave the house dressed like jewel thieves? How do they come into possession of these bikes? They cost hundreds, if not thousands of pounds.

Surely, these aren’t young people taking their first steps towards a career in high finance, who just get a kick out of spending their free time riding around like yobs, intimidating people on the streets, and sometimes worse.

The rising number of Neets (young people not in education, employment, or training) suggests that many of these folk aren’t exactly earning their way in life.

But then I remembered the parents on the bus who were more interested in blaring out pop music from tinny mobile phone speakers than attending to their misbehaving offspring. In ten years, if they haven’t stopped themselves from gawping at their phones and behaving anti-socially themselves then what chances have their children got?

You can just imagine it, ‘my child needs an electric bike, balaclava and latest designer clobber so that they can fit in with their errant friends’. No questions asked as to what they’re getting up to. And when they do meet consequences it’s someone else’s fault.

While it should be the responsibility of parents to ensure that children don’t turn out to be anti-social yobs, it is society that picks up the cost. And little children don’t deserve to be condemned to a life of neglect just because their parents happen to be negligent.

That is why community spaces have never been more important. Youth clubs, grassroots sports teams, mentoring hubs.

In a world where young people are finding themselves increasingly isolated as they retreat into the online world with its various toxic elements and criminal gangs are running amok on our streets, there is an absence of role models in many left behind communities.

Young people don’t have a release valve. There is nothing to help keep them on the straight and narrow. No carrots outside the home and evidently no stick inside the home.

I’ve seen the impact of sports clubs first-hand on the lives of young people. Helping keep them away from criminal elements, giving them a sense of belong, purpose even.

Unfortunately, austerity took away funding for important youth work and playing fields were at best left in a state of ruin or at worst sold off.

Behind our home there used to be a playing field. We’d spend the whole summer holidays playing cricket and football there. But the council has stopped mowing the grass there. It is now overgrown with weeds and the grass is as tall as we were back then. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets sold off to a property developer.

It wasn’t just a place for us to play but also a safe haven away from the bad stuff going on in the neighbourhood.

Youth clubs, sports teams and playing fields are not going to solve the problem. But they may just give some children a chance in life.

And while money is even tighter now than it was 15 years ago, the country has a moral obligation to at least try to provide a lifeline to children from challenging circumstances.