RESIDENTS have pitched in to end a yob nightmare that has spanned decades.

They celebrated not with champagne but by digging up the cause of their problems - an alleyway running behind their homes.

Sex pests, drug-takers, and drunks urinating have all used the footpath, between Keswick Grove and Trimdon Avenue, Middlesbrough, as well as tearaways on motorcycles.

People have been beaten up in the lane, which has been the scene of underage drinking and sex parties and from which arsonists have attacked garden sheds.

The alleyway was officially closed at the weekend by Middlesbrough Council, which had applied successfully to central Government to make the move.

While each end is fenced off, the alleyway will disappear, swallowed up under neighbours' garden extensions.

Resident Colin Moore said: "It will make a big difference to the lives of those living along the cut.

"The difference will be amazing.

"You name the hassle and we have had it all - drugs, flashers, sex and fires, with two sheds burned down."

Housewife and mother Carol Pearson is looking forward to enjoying the last of the summer in her Keswick Grove garden - something long denied her.

Mrs Pearson said: "You could not put into words how I feel - to be able to sit out in my garden and not be bothered by youths in the cut swearing, or driven indoors by the smell of urine."

Too old to tackle the yobs, pensioners Elizabeth and Arthur "Taff" Jones sought refuge by turning their television up.

"This has been a long time coming," said Mr Jones, who has lived at the same address for 30 years.

As residents rolled up their shirt sleeves , dug, hacked and hammered away to break up the lane, ward councillor Hazel Pearson said: "I have never known an effort like this before when everyone has come together - residents, friends from the fire service and Middlesbrough Council.

"I don't know of any other area where such a thing has taken place. It is 25 years since I first complained about the footpath, when it was horses and then motorbikes.

It is such a joyous occasion, I can't believe it is happen-ing."