The force says the move responds to ongoing youth anti-social behaviour and criminal damage in those locations. For residents across the wider Humberside patch — including our own streets in Grimsby, Cleethorpes, and Immingham — it is worth pausing on what this tool actually does and what it signals about how neighbourhood policing is being deployed on our doorstep.
What a Section 34 Order Actually Does
A Section 34 dispersal order gives officers on the beat the power to direct individuals to leave a designated area and not return for a set period. It is not a blanket curfew — it is targeted, aimed at people an officer reasonably believes is contributing to ASB or likely to. In this case the order covers three specific zones: the playing field, the Minster, and the Market Place.
Humberside Police has framed the trigger as ongoing youth anti-social behaviour and criminal damage. That wording matters. "Ongoing" is not the language of a one-off weekend spike. It implies prior reports, prior visits, and prior warnings that did not shift the behaviour. For residents who have ever wondered whether their own calls are being logged or quietly filed away, that phrasing is a small but honest admission that the usual engagement tools have run their course.
What This Means for Our Patch
Howden sits in the East Riding, not North East Lincolnshire, but the force is the same and the playbook rarely changes much between divisions. When Humberside Police reaches for Section 34 rather than community resolution or a word in the ear, it tells you the softer options have already been tried and found wanting. That is not a criticism — it is how the tool is meant to work. But it also means residents should not expect dispersal orders to become routine wallpaper.
What you can do practically: if you are seeing similar patterns on your own streets, document dates, times, and locations and pass them to your local neighbourhood team. Dispersal orders are not signed off on a hunch. They require evidence of a pattern, and that pattern is built from the reports residents actually submit. Without the paperwork from us, the paperwork from them does not exist.
What to Watch Next
The order runs until 19 August. Once that window closes, the real test is whether the ASB drops or simply resurfaces a week later in a different spot. Humberside Police owes residents a straightforward update on what changed during the dispersal period and whether further enforcement — or a longer-term plan involving youth services, CCTV, or visible patrols — follows behind it. We will be watching for that briefing.
If you have witnessed incidents in any of the named Howden locations during the order period, or you have information about criminal damage in the area, contact Humberside Police directly with what you know. Straight answers go both ways — from the force to us, and from the community back to the force.