One resident said she has considered “selling up and moving away” since the fast food restaurant opened
One resident said she has considered “selling up and moving away” since the fast food restaurant opened
00:01, 26 Apr 2026
For years, Allerton Road has been regarded as a model high street: a place full of independent businesses and a growing food and drink scene. It’s the kind of suburban hub people feel invested in, built up over time and protected by a strong sense of local identity.
On a sunny Thursday morning, the street is thriving, with people drifting between stores, stopping to chat to neighbours, or catching up over a cup of coffee. That’s why the arrival of a major fast food chain earlier this year struck such a nerve.
When the clock strikes 3pm, many locals say the atmosphere changes, with gangs of teenagers arriving on bikes and gathering in numbers that feel, to some, intimidating enough to send people back to the safety of their homes.
Plans to turn the former bank building on the corner of Allerton Road and Garthdale Road into a KFC sparked a swift and vocal backlash. Within weeks, 2,500 residents had signed a petition opposing the move, with concerns ranging from litter and noise to fears about anti-social behaviour and the impact on younger people in the area.
Despite that opposition, the development was approved and the restaurant opened at the end of January.
Not long after, it became a popular meeting point for school pupils and teenagers. For many, it’s simply somewhere to grab food after school. But there have been repeated reports of disruption: eggs being chucked at nearby shops, milkshakes being launched and buses kicked, leading to a dispersal zone being implemented in the area last month by Merseyside Police for the first time ever.
People who live and work nearby describe a noticeable shift. Some talk about avoiding the area at certain times of day, while others say the sense of ease that once defined the street has been replaced, at least in the evenings, by something more unpredictable.
Many people the ECHO spoke to on Allerton Road had their own horror stories to tell about antisocial behaviour they had experienced on the street. One woman, who asked not to be named, likened evenings on the street to a “warzone”.
She said: “We had an incident the other night, about 7 o’clock. Me and my husband were walking down the road and a bunch of kids wouldn’t move out the way. One boy was pushing another boy into the road. My husband told them to stop. The one who was getting pushed started booting a bus with passengers on.
“I was scared to be honest. They gave my husband a mouthful of abuse. We carried on walking and when I looked behind two of them were following us. They grabbed my husband’s hat off his head and ran away. My husband chased them and thankfully they dropped it and left. The whole thing was quite intimidating.”
The woman, who has lived locally for nearly four decades, added: “I feel like I’ve been ignored; so many people opposed the plans and it was still opened. It’s costing police resources a fortune. Not to mention the rubbish outside the KFC. You get loads of them on bikes, hoods up, masked up, all in black.”
Another local, Pam, who lives just off Allerton Road, said the situation has left her feeling unsafe. She said: “I used to walk here all the time, even at night. Now I won’t come out on my own – my husband has to come with me. There are gangs of teenagers blocking the pavements and if you ask them to move, you get a load of abuse.
“I feel like selling up and moving away.”
Her friend Julie added: “My partner is visually impaired so walking down here where there’s kids in your face is really scary. He can’t see to deal with that and it’s only a matter of time before we have an accident. Friday afternoon I go to the hairdresser’s and it’s like I’ve got a death wish.
“Plus, we have a government that is against obesity. I can’t buy two packets of biscuits on offer, but you can have a KFC for your breakfast.”
One local shop owner, who has run her shop for 18 years, worries about the implication the issues may have on her business.
She said: “There’s been a lot of deterioration on this road and how it feels. People avoid coming down here at key times of the day.
“My customers tell me they don’t come out now after 3 o’clock because of the gangs. Business is tough enough as it is for everybody at the moment.”
She added: “The police have been magnificent. But I just feel a bit down at times because we need people to come to Allerton Road.
“It used to be a community; there were just no issues, because there was no reason for gangs to come here and intimidate. I don’t know what the answer is, and I don’t know if there is one.”
Nearby fishmonger Brian Shrigley, whose family business has served the community for five decades, said incidents of disruption had increased in recent months.
He said: “Since KFC opened the issues have been a lot worse. The kids are totally out of control; they’re feral. A lot of people are scared to go out because they’re getting abused by the kids.
“There was a few the other week picking up the boxes by the van and throwing them. They come in and give us a load of abuse. Something needs to be done about it; dinner time, when they’re all going in there. There needs to be a limit on the amount of kids allowed in there.
Leslie Cohen, 90, has lived in the area all his life and believes wider social changes may also be a factor.
“I think social media and mobile phones are partly to blame. You used to get a good hiding and that would be that. But now, there’s no discipline.”
Councillor Richard Kemp, who led the petition against the plans for a new KFC, said concerns about anti-social behaviour had been raised before the development was approved.
He said: “Allerton Road is now a different question than it has been in the last 100 years. We warned before KFC came in that it would cause antisocial behaviour and traffic problems. Regrettably, we’ve been proven right.
“The idea that a calm place like Allerton Road would had to have a dispersal order would have been unbelievable a year ago. Since the dispersal order things got better for a while but as with all these things I suspect they’re now kicking off again and we have lots of reports at the weekend of large gangs of kids.”
He added: “KFC have belatedly begun to respond to the problems. They now have a security company and do litter patrols. They’ve turned off their sockets so the kids can’t charge their phones and changed the type of music they play.
“But that hasn’t altered the fact that between 3.30pm and 7.30pm there are a substantial amount of kids there who, even if they didn’t mean to cause trouble, are just being a nuisance and quite aggressive.
“Most of the kids I think are just high-spirited. But some of them are doing this quite deliberately. I’ve often observed they’ll be 20 to 30 lads on bikes and six or seven girls sat on the bench outside the KFC egging them on. It’s quite a complex problem.
A KFC spokesperson said: “We’re aware of on-going activity close to and around our new Allerton Road restaurant and understand and share the concerns being raised. Since we opened our doors in Allerton, being a good neighbour and a positive force in the community is a top priority for us.
“We are working closely with local partners, including the police, local schools, neighbouring businesses and local residents, to work together to collectively address the issue and help create a safe and welcoming environment for everyone in the area.”
