Nottingham’s council is holding talks after youths wearing balaclavas scaled the Debenhams building again, just weeks after a ban came into force.
Cllr Matt Shannon, who represents the ward covering the city centre on Nottingham City Council, says he shares concerns that someone could end up falling from the vacant multi-storey building in Old Market Square.
The department store closed in May 2021 and has been prone to break-ins by youths and so-called urban explorers.
Four youths were pictured sitting on the roof of the building on Thursday, with two of them appearing to dangle their legs over the edge.
Nottinghamshire Police was called at around 3.45pm on Thursday, October 22.
Two members of the group were wearing balaclavas, despite a ban on face coverings worn for acts of anti-social behaviour being in place in the city centre since mid-September.
Cllr Shannon, who is also the council’s executive member for community protection, neighbourhoods and equalities, says the authority is holding talks with the relevant authorities following the incident.
Community Protection Officers (CPOs) were seen patrolling the building the following day, Friday (October 23).
“It is very frustrating when you get instances like the Debenhams building because we’ve put the closure order in and for a while after that it was quiet,” he said.
“There are really quite serious repercussions on anyone who does trespass in it. I suppose there is an element where you think what are the building owners doing about it? It is very frustrating.
“There is limited enforcement we can do beyond what we’ve already done. The worry is there is another way they are getting in that we haven’t found yet.
“We will keep having enforcement in the area. The greater concern is very much that we are all worrying about the same thing.”
On the fear that someone could end up falling from the six-storey building, he added: “You really, really don’t want to see it happen – it would be absolutely horrible and we’d all be saying why didn’t this get stopped.
“It is frustrating we haven’t got the building properly secured.”
A closure order for the Debenhams building has been extended multiple times since it was first issued by city magistrates in December 2025. It came after a group of youths accessed the site in July that year, before going on to throw roof tiles from the roof.
Break-ins have also been reported this year.
Nottinghamshire Police says an alleyway in Norfolk Place had been a key route into the site for trespassers, and this has been closed off.
Long Row Properties, based in Jersey, first acquired the building back in 2017, and it is now managed on its behalf by Longmead Capital.
Despite the incident on October 22, Cllr Shannon said the balaclava ban had led to a “significant reduction” in the number of face coverings being worn.
“It is not zero but it is way, way down,” he added, despite earlier reports that no fines have so far been issued.
“Under the police’s Operation Reclaim they have said that youth anti-social behaviour is down by 40 per cent. There has been a reduction in drug dealing and knife crime as well, really encouraging stuff.
“We’ve got eight [new Community Protection Officers] after a recruitment process we did this month, that will be starting the process to come online, and then we’ve approved funding for 20 of them to be in place by April.
“We are consulting on the budget now, but there is another 10 to come in later than that – so we are putting a lot of frontline resources in.
“The surface thing is I see far fewer balaclavas in the city centre, our enforcement officers do. There have been a few instances where people have been stopped and asked to remove them. If they do then they don’t get fined.
“It’s a bit like a smoking ban. You don’t want to catch people smoking, you just want them to stop doing it and that’s what we are largely getting out of it.”
By Joe Locker Local Democracy Reporter
