More than 450 young people in Bury run away from home each year.
The figure was released by North West charity, The Relationships Centre, which says dealing with these incidents costs Bury taxpayers more than £1.5 million a year.
Three years ago, The Relationships Centre launched their Talk . . . Don't Walk scheme in Warrington. It has successfully reduced the number of young runaways in the area by 76 per cent, from 1,235 in 2003 to 297 in 2006, and is the only one of its kind in the country.
Running away is often the first step towards a life of crime, drug abuse and sexual abuse and the charity aims to tackle the basic problem to avoid this. In 2003, there were 744 recordable crimes in Warrington directly related to runaways, which fell to 207 criminal incidents three years later.
The charity has now urged other local authorities to look at launching a similar scheme.
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