It's a typical Saturday afternoon on Cathedral Square in Peterboroung, in the east of England. Two noisy gangs of young people are sitting in the centre of the square.
One group are wearing tracksuits and baseball caps and brand-new white trainers.
A lot of them are wearing jewellery like gold chains and earrings, They're the 'Chavs'. Opposite them are the 'Goths'. They're wearing black Doctor Marten boots, long black coats and black T-shirts with the names of their favourite bands
on them. Some of them are wearing lipstick and eyeliner and a few of them have
piercings. Nervous shoppers hurry past them, trying not to make eye contact. It seems to be quiet but you feel that at any moment a fight could start. The police
say these young people are probably harmless-perhaps they just hang around the square because there's nothing better to do. But older people say they are tired of putting up with the noise and litter. These kind of problems certainly aren't unique to Peterborough. But after trying several different methods, Peterborough City Council has a radical plan to change things. The council's controversial plan to bring peace to the city starts on a Tuesday morning during the half-term holiday. A group of fourteen Chavs and Goths of both sexes are travelling by bus to a secret location in the countryside, ten miles out of town. There are more Chavs than Goths-maybe
it's hard for some Goths to get up in the mornings! When they finally arrive, supervisors ask them to put on camouflage clothing. And then the two gangs spend
the rest ot the morning petending to shoot at each other.
Don't worry-the guns are not real (they fire plastic balls filled with paint) and it's all for fun. But isn't it dangerous to fight aggression with aggression? Is a game of paintball really the best way to bring young people together? Steve Mayes, the organiser of the event, feels that it is. He thinks these controversial game give the two groups something to do and can start them talking. 'It gets rid of a lot of energy too-it's much better than playing games on Playststions and Xboxes, he says. Meanwhile, the Chavs and Goths are fooling around: there's a lot of shouting and laughter and everyone appears to be having fun.
At the end of day Steve Mayes believes the event was a success the two groups are already talking each other. 'It's like football, says Denise, another organiser.
'You choose which team you belong to.But at the end of the day, Chavs and Goths are the same sort of people.