A PLAGUE of vandalism is estimated to be costing Wear Valley council taxpayers £550,000.

The total - which includes money spent on security - has led Wear Valley District Council leader Councillor Olive Brown to appeal to the public for help in tackling the problem.

Repairs to council houses affected by criminal damage have cost £191,463, according to the authority.

One community building, the Deborah Wood Sports Pavilion, in West Auckland, cost £12,000, first in repairs and then in demolition costs when it was decided the extent of the damage was too great to make repairs cost-effective.

On some estates the threat to empty properties is so great that the council spends £276,000 a year on making them secure. Boarded up homes makes neighbouring properties harder to let and means the council loses rent income.

Staff time spent managing empty houses and collecting discarded hypodermic needles and other waste is estimated at £10,000.

In addition, it costs £36,857 to run closed-circuit television security systems in Bishop Auckland and Crook town centres.

Durham County Council also bears the cost of vandalism in the district. It spent a total of £35,553 on street lighting repairs in 1997-98, for example.

The district council says it is working with police, the county council, health and probation services to try to reduce the vandalism.

The probation service has allocated 5,000 community service hours per year for community safety initiatives, including graffiti removal and litter collection.

The Home Office has given funding for a mobile closed-circuit television system to be taken to crime hotspots, and £30,000 to secure vulnerable homes on Bishop Auckland's Woodhouse Close estate.

Coun Brown said: "If people do nothing to stop vandalism we might just as well pour our money down the drain.

"Some people may be frightened to get involved, or feel intimidated in the face of the vandals, but people must get involved if we are to tackle this problem.

"The should report incidents to the police and tell them the names of those involved if they know who they are.