Frustration as youths in balaclavas scale Nottingham Debenhams building weeks after ban
City leaders are holding urgent talks after youths wearing balaclavas scaled the vacant Debenhams building in Nottingham again.
Coun Matt Shannon (Lab), city council executive member for community protection, neighbourhoods and equalities, said he shared concerns that someone could fall from the vacant six-storey building in Old Market Square.
The department store closed in May 2021 and has been prone to break-ins by youths and urban explorers.
On October 22, four youths were pictured on the roof and police were called.
Two members of the group were wearing balaclavas, despite the city-centre ban introduced in mid-September.
Coun Shannon said the authority was holding talks with the relevant authorities after the incident.
Community Protection Officers were seen patrolling the building the following day.
Coun Shannon said: “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.
“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.
“It is frustrating we haven’t got the building properly secured.”
A closure order has been extended multiple times since it was first issued by city magistrates in December 2025, after youths accessed the site in July that year and threw roof tiles from the roof. Break-ins have also been reported this year.
Police say an alleyway in Norfolk Place had been a key route into the site for trespassers and has now been closed off.
Long Row Properties, based in Jersey, acquired the building in 2017 and it is managed on their behalf by Longmead Capital.
Coun Shannon said the balaclava ban had led to a ‘significant reduction’ in face coverings, adding that youth anti-social behaviour was ‘down by 40 per cent under Operation Reclaim’, and ‘eight new community protection officers would start the process to come online after a recruitment process this month, with funding approved for 20 by April and another 10 later’.