POLICE have insisted that a rural village continues to have low crime levels, despite problems involving youths causing trouble.

Hurworth Parish Council heard this week that there had been five cases of youths causing an annoyance in the area over the past month.

PC Boyd Rowe said incidents occurring in the Grange Community Centre had become a concern.

He told councillors: "Over the last month, crime has continued to be more or less non-existent.

"Youths causing an annoyance has become a problem again and a lot of it is around the Grange, which is something we are looking at.

"We are looking at various ways of keeping on top of that."

There had also been five reports of criminal damage in the last month, some of which had been at the Grange.