Cambridge orders £5m crackdown on freerunning and vandalism

Freerunners are jumping between stairwell and garages of the East Road estate

A £5m crackdown on "notable problems", including freerunning on a city estate, had been approved by a council.

The area between the stairwell and garages of the East Road estate, Cambridge will be enclosed to prevent access.

The city council said freerunners, who jump between rooftops and walls, "risk trespassing or causing damage".

Fly-tipping, vandalism and poor street lighting will also be targeted in the five-year scheme.

"Reducing crime"

A report before the housing scrutiny committee heard the East Road estate had "notable problems" with fly-tipping, vandalism and freerunning, which is also known as parkour.

Kingsway Flats in Arbury had also become a "haven for anti-social behaviour and criminal activity", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A city-wide street and communal lighting upgrade was also approved.

Abbey ward councillor Nicky Massey said the £750,000 street lighting programme would "go a long way to reducing crime".

Freerunning came to prominence in France in the 1980s, according to the national body Parkour UK.

The United Kingdom was the first country to officially recognise it as a sport in 2017.