A COUNCIL is having to pay up to £2,000 a month to protect a £4m park restoration project.

The ambitious South Park scheme, which aims to return the Darlington park to its former Victorian glory, has been dogged by vandalism in recent weeks.

Youths vandalised a new children's play area and the park's temporary toilets.

And security guards and contractors have been pelted with stones.

The trouble-making has driven some families who might use the play area out of the park, and has seen two boys arrested, pending further investigation.

Security guards at South Park operate in the evenings and at night and cost between £1,500 to £2,000 a month.

Park manager Paul Place said: "We don't lock the park at night because there is no way we can keep people out. If we did, it would create a haven for trouble.

"The restoration is going fantastically well, but the vandalism is annoying."

The problems in South Park are part of a town-wide problem, which saw the number of anti-social behaviour reports in Darlington increase by 20 per cent last year.

In the past year, there have been nearly 5,000 reports of youngsters causing annoyance in the town.

Yesterday, Darlington Borough Council and Darlington police said they were tackling the problem.

The council now has three security cameras operating in South Park.

And Darlington police's StreetSafe unit, which was set up to crack down on young troublemakers, has been concentrating its efforts the park.

Mr Place said: "We are operating a zero tolerance policy on trouble-makers. The message is, we will not tolerate mindless vandalism.

"We now have three CCTV cameras up to identify those responsible. We are restoring a great park here and want to make it even better"

Sergeant Dave Kirton, who leads the StreetSafe unit, said: "We made two arrests with regard to criminal damage of toilets. The public can continue to help us by calling the police if they witness any anti-social behaviour."

The £3.9m South Park project is on target to be completed in mid-October. Designers and builders are trying to restore the park to its Victorian glory and create an area for the 21st Century, including a skate park, multi-use games area, wildlife haven, sensory garden and meandering footpaths.