After all the negative publicity surrounding football supporters spending time in Chorley, the Council have issued a statement which they hope will clarify their position.
'We just wanted to update everyone following a letter regarding football fans visiting Chorley town centre.
In
the letter it stated that travelling away fans would not be welcome in
Chorley – this is not the case we do welcome football fans and we
apologise for this comment and any offence this may have caused.
The letter was sent on behalf of the town team, which is made up of
representatives from across the town centre, and was in response to
concerns that unruly football fans are putting people off shopping in
Chorley.
We do welcome football fans and the vast majority are extremely
well behaved, add to the atmosphere and support our local businesses.
What we can’t have, and which is what triggered the concerns from
traders, is a situation where large groups of fans are gathering in
pubs, spilling out on to the streets and intimidating, or being seen to
be intimidating other people using the town centre.
It is a small minority of people that have been spoiling it for
others in the past and it is the unruly fans who are causing anti social
behaviour that are not welcome.
We’ve done a lot of work to improve the town centre and make it a
place people can enjoy visiting so we will continue to work with the
licensed trade and the police to make sure we keep the friendly
atmosphere and make it a place that shoppers, people coming to spend
their leisure time and football fans can all mix together.
We apologise again for any offence this has caused and we would
like to wish football fans of all clubs a successful season and
hopefully we’ll see you in Chorley over the coming weeks and months.'