A POLICE commander has called on parents to take responsibility for their children in an area terrorised by unruly youths.

Inspector Colin White, commander for the Thornaby area, has written to parents following complaints about their children causing a nuisance.

He has urged parents in a community newsletter to accept their youngsters could be causing problems.

He said: "Some parents may have received letters concerning their children hanging about known areas, where complaints are received on a regular basis.

"I make no apologises for these tactics. Crime and disorder go hand in hand. Where are your children? What are they doing? Do you know?"

Insp White went on to challenge the misconception that problematic youths come only from council-run estates.

He said that between December last year and the end of January there were more than 100 calls to police from the Ingelby Barwick area, and a third of these were about youth disorder.

He said: "I believe some adults only believe youth behaviour problems occur in non-private estates. This is factually incorrect.

"Anyone driving along Yarm Road recently will have noticed most of the windows of two bus shelters have been broken.

"The individuals concerned have been arrested and prosecutions are in hand.

"The Government has given the police powers to deal with anti-social behaviour and the workforce of Thornaby and Yarm robustly endorse this legislation."

The letters follow on from a plan by Insp White and MP Dari Taylor to curb the problem of badly behaved youths.

In January, Mrs Taylor pledged to write to everyone in the area to let them know what action they could take to prevent them being terrorised by young people.

The action followed reports of eggs being thrown at houses and youngsters vandalising gardens.

Some residents who tried to escape the area found it impossible to sell their homes because the vandals kept removing the sale boards from outside their properties.