THE family of a boy who died on a railway line in Darlington have criticised the borough council for failing to provide enough for youngsters to do on Friday and Saturday nights.

Stuart Adams, 15, and Lee Mullis, 14, were killed at the Five Arches Bridge on Good Friday.

Friends of the boys complained they had nothing to do and were forced to hang around the railway line because they were unwelcome in parks and residential areas.

Youth provision in the town has been criticised since their deaths.

At a public meeting in Northland Methodist Church on Monday evening, Trevor Adams, Stuart's father, said he blamed Darlington Borough Council.

He said: "Two boys' lives have been wiped out. For the council not to find something for these youths to do is disgusting.

"We need somebody to rattle the top guy, then it will go down from him. If he has a hot potato, he will have to do something."

Stuart's mother, Sue Cadman, said: "We are funding the council, we all pay our council taxes, what are they doing for young people?"

The meeting was attended by more than 20 people from the North Road community, including community partnership representatives, youth workers and residents.

Yesterday, Darlington Borough Council defended itself, saying it was negotiating a £90,000 grant for youth provision in the North Road area over three years.

Chris McEwan, council cabinet member for children's services, said: "We recognise there is a need for more activities for young people and we are working to secure lottery funding. We will be doing further consultation with young people so that we can identify exactly what kind of things they would like the money to be spent on."

The meeting heard that there were no youth clubs in the North Road area.

Claire Compton, of the Community Crime Reduction Independent Social Partnership, which provides activities in school holidays, said: "People see big groups of youngsters and think they are going to cause trouble. We need to find somewhere that young people can hang out without being moved on all the time."

Participants agreed to put pressure on Darlington Borough Council.