Trick or treat 'terror' blitz; CAMPAIGN: Police to round up children to stop intimidation.

Byline: By Jane Tyler

YOUTHS on a Birmingham estate are to be rounded up and taken off the streets this Halloween in a tough new police move to stop them terrorising the elderly.

The aim is to stop them going round pensioners' houses to do trick or treating.

Instead youngsters on the Welsh House Farm estate will be sent off on a orienteering event.

Officers in Quinton are the first in the West Midlands to adopt the radical new tactic of stamping out problems associated with the Halloween tradition.

Police from the neighbourhood team have joined forces with St Boniface Church for the initiative.

They will draw up an orienteering exercise which will involve the youngsters going from point to point in the area following maps and reference guides.

Leaflets are being distributed around schools and letters are being dropped through doors asking parents to sign their children up for the event.

Sgt Jeff Doak, based at Quinton, said they came up with the idea during a brainstorming session to come up with ways of dealing with the seasonal nuisance.

"Every year we have the same problem - youngsters go round at night knocking on doors for trick or treat," he said.

"It's bad enough if you're a young person, but if you're elderly then it's frightening and intimidating to have a gang of kids outside your door dressed in scary costumes demanding money.

"We can't stop them doing trick or treat but we can divert them away from it."

He said their plan would take dozens of youngsters away from doorsteps that night. "It will also be educational as they will learn teamwork and skills like orienteering and map reading," Sgt Doak said.

Any parent interested in sending their child to the event on October 31 should contact Sgt Doak on 0845 113 5000.

CHILDREN out trick or treating on dark nights also put themselves at risk either from approaching strangers or crossing busy roads, safety experts say.

Six years ago 12-year-old Daniel Knight died while out trick or treating in Birmingham.

He was in collision with a van while out with friends in Yardley Wood Road, Billesley.

An inquest ruled that the van driver was not to blame and recorded a verdict of accidental death.

It heard how it was the first time Daniel, who was praised as a "model pupil" at Wheeler's Lane Technology College, Kings Heath, had been out trick or treating and was "excited".

His devastated mum Carol said: "To be honest, I didn't want him to go."

OUR SAY: PAGE 48

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