Once again, Police have gained special powers to disperse rowdy groups.

Groups could be asked to disperse tonight in the centre of Macclesfield, in response to rising anti-social behaviour crimes.

It is the third time in just over a month that Cheshire Constabulary have applied for special powers to break up groups and ask people to leave without any crime being committed.

Those that appear suspicious or likely to cause an anti-social behaviour crime could be split up in Macclesfield, without further reason.

The order will last for the next 48 hours, or more specifically for the next two nights, when ASB crimes are more likely to take place.

The Macclesfield dispersal order has been imposed under Section 34 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

Dispersal orders make it an offence for anyone to return to a specific area for up to 48 hours.

Anyone in the Central Macclesfield policing area is covered, which could mean anyone could be issued with a direction to leave the area if suspicious.

Macclesfield Central Police said in a statement: "A dispersal order has been issues on Macclesfield Town Centre for the next 48 hours due to ongoing ASB in the community."

Figures for July and August are unavailable, so we are unable to verify these claims.

Macclesfield Nub News has asked for evidence of last week's claimed anti-social behaviour rise.

The most recent publicly available figures suggest there were 54 anti-social behaviour crimes in Central Macclesfield for June 2021.

This is the second most common crime in the area, after 61 violence and sexual offences.

This pales in comparison to Macclesfield South for example, who had just 13 antisocial behaviour crimes in June 2021.

Interestingly, there were also 54 Central Macclesfield anti-social behaviour crimes in May 2021.

While Central Macclesfield is the most popular area of our town, the high ASB figures led to May and June being the two highest months for crime in Macc since December 2020.

Antisocial behaviour is defined by police and the law as 'behaviour by a person which causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to persons not of the same household as the person'.

Types of antisocial behaviour include; criminal damage, making threats of violence or being violent, drug dealing, dangerous dogs, harassment, and other public disturbances.

We have contacted Cheshire Police for comment, and the reasoning for the three ASB orders in just over 30 days.

Once the order is lifted, there will have been five days this has been enforced across July and August.

Macclesfield: have you seen anti-social behaviour rise in our town?

Do you think this is the solution?

See also: Macclesfield: Police want to speak to feather duster salesman in Sutton.

Please sign up for our Friday weekly newsletter containing each week's top 10 Macclesfield news stories, and one FREE exclusive article. 450 of you have signed up already.

Simply enter your email address into the shaded box below.

Free from pop-up ads, or unwanted surveys, Macclesfield Nub News is a quality online newspaper which produces 25-30 stories a week for our town.

You can also find us on Facebook or Twitter.