RESIDENTS from a Teesside community are calling for help to improve an area where pensioners are too afraid to leave their homes.

They said their concerns about street crime and anti-social behaviour on the St Aidan's Drive estate in Middlesbrough, have been ignored by the authorities and many are too frightened to go out.

Jason Walker, chairman of St Aidan's Residents' Association, said: "Seventy per cent of the residents around here are elderly. It's just not fair on them to expect them to live in fear all the time."

He said the Community Centre in Grange Road gets at least 30 complaints a day from residents, mainly about anti-social behaviour.

"There is a high number of drug users and pushers around here and walk-in burglaries are common. We've had quite a few muggings, too.

"We've recently discovered that there is prostitution going on in one of the flats.

"Here at the community centre we've tried putting on courses for the elderly folk in how to stay safe but they're too scared to leave their homes to attend. They know they'll get accosted by beggars at the very least.

"We are just sick of talking to the authorities. No one seems to listen to our concerns. We want to get CCTV but we've been told there's no one to man it," he said.

Superintendent Steve Ashman, from the Middlesbrough division of Cleveland Police, said: "Altogether, crime has dropped by 3.7 per cent in the area in the last 12 months, especially burglaries and violent crime, whereas other regions have seen up to a 15 per cent increase.

"St Aidan's is part of central Middlesbrough and one of the areas which suffers more than most from crimes like prostitution but the number of police community support officers and local authority wardens has increased.

"I'd like to invite any community groups to make contact with us if they have concerns about their area. We do most of our work with community councils and offer advice and help to them.

"In terms of the elderly, we recognise that they have particular needs and we aim to meet them. Even though crime figures are down, we understand that the fear of crime is not, so crime figures are still not at a level we are happy with and we will keep working to bring them down."