A 79-YEAR-OLD grandmother has told of her misery at being unable to leave a street terrorised by hooligans.

The mother-of-eight, who was too frightened to give her name, has had her application to Stockton Borough Council to leave Derby Close, in Thornaby, Teesside, rejected.

She said she was desperate to leave after suffering at the hands of yobs who, she said continually run on her roof, smash bricks against her home and verbally abuse her.

She said that she was too scared to sleep at night and hardly ever left her council house.

She said: "I cannot sleep for worry. They have set off any number of fires and there is an old settee out there.

"I keep thinking they are going to set it alight. There are big bushes outside my home and I keep thinking they are hiding behind it.

"There are piles of rubbish, babies' nappies, all outside in the back alley. They have put up alley gates, but they just climb over them."

A letter from Stockton Borough Council to the woman said her application to move was turned down because she did not fit the criteria.

No one at the borough council was available for comment last night.

At one point, half of all calls received by Thornaby firefighters were for arson attacks on derelict properties in Mansfield Avenue, the neighbouring street to Derby Close.

Independent ward councillor Liz Fleming said there were plans to make alley gates vandal-proof and she promised to investigate the case.

Police have given ten youths a tough final warning, and a 16-year-old was made the subject of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order last week.

The ten boys, aged between 13 and 18, have been made to sign Acceptable Behaviour Contracts and, if they break them, they could end up at court.