Police launch operation to stop rowdy youths nuisance

Large gangs of teenagers roaming the streets of Harrowgate Hill have angered residents, who say they are sometimes afraid to leave their houses.

The rowdy youths are reported to have been drinking, damaging property and behaving in a lewd and offensive manner.

Following more than 80 complaints about youngsters causing a nuisance in the area over the past two months, Darlington police started a crackdown on anti-social behaviour there last week.

Beat officer PC Graham Milne said: "We are trying to dissuade the youths from hanging about in large groups.

"Any offences they commit will be positively dealt with. In other words, we will be taking action against them and it won't just be a verbal warning.

"We want to show them it is unacceptable to behave in such a way, especially as it is upsetting local residents so much.

"If this behaviour is making the residents' lives unpleasant then it is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

Julie Patten, of Holmwood Grove, Harrowgate Hill, said her car had been damaged twice, once when thieves broke into her vehicle to steal a £1 coin.

She said: "We have got gangs of about 100 youths roaming around the Mayfair Road, Oakland Gardens and Holmwood Grove area.

"All the residents up here are absolutely sick and the police have had to put beat officers on from 6pm to 9pm every night.

"The wardens must be sick of us calling all the time. They are very good, but we are always ringing."

She recalled one occasion when one of three girls walking past stopped and urinated in the middle of the road.

"Some people have written to Tony Blair about it because they are so fed up. We are becoming prisoners in our own homes," she said.

PC Milne said the youngsters came from different parts of Darlington, not just Harrowgate Hill.

He said that the council and police were looking into the possibility of providing some facilities in the area to keep youths entertained.