WORRIED residents have organised a petition urging police to increase patrols in a bid to combat teenagers who are causing trouble in an area of Musselburgh dubbed the “worst area in the whole of East Lothian” for anti-social behaviour by a local police officer.

Householders from the Mountjoy area and a representative from Loretto School attended a meeting of the local community council last week, when they were told there had been a drop in the number of calls from the public amidst the launch of a youth anti-social behaviour initiative concerning problems at the Loretto playing fields.

The petition, a copy of which was handed over to the community council, stated that the residents of Mountjoy and Fisherrow had experienced “an unacceptable level” of anti-social behaviour from youths since the summer.

They claimed that this included drinking alcohol, vandalising and stealing residents’ property, and “most disturbingly”, lighting fires in the Loretto playing fields.

The petition added: “We respectfully ask the police to increase patrols in the area and stop this anti-social behaviour.”

The Courier recently reported that youths were stealing wheelie bins and setting them on fire, constantly harassing elderly people and pelting windows with eggs.

A previous community council meeting heard that police had mounted extra patrols after receiving 23 calls relating to anti-social behaviour during a two-week period from October 11 to 25.

At last week’s meeting, PC Jeff Lowe said a youth anti-social behaviour initiative with dedicated community police officers had been put in place.

He said: “We only had eight calls in the last two weeks for the whole of Musselburgh – one from Mountjoy and one from the Brunton Hall.

“Throughout the weekends, there are a lot of us on and we are dedicated to youth patrols, specifically in the Mountjoy area and whatever hotspots there are.”

He said that every Wednesday there was a meeting with East Lothian Council’s anti-social behaviour team, community wardens and a fire safety officer to discuss where the calls were coming from and to try to tackle problems.

PC Lowe added: “Mountjoy was pretty much the worst area in the whole of East Lothian for calls and anti-social behaviour, so we have increased patrols in the last couple of weeks.”

He said one Friday night there were 14 youths in the park – four were taken home and spoken to in front of their parents. Another youth, who was caught with alcohol, was charged with giving false details to police. He added that the young people were from the Musselburgh area.

PC Lowe pledged that the patrols would continue and urged residents to contact the police about any incidents, adding that the school link officer had also highlighted the issue in local schools.

A spokesman for Loretto said the school representative, although not a signatory of the petition, attended the community council meeting to support its neighbours on Mountjoy Terrace and Mountjoy Court over the recent spate of anti-social behaviour.

He added: “We appreciated that the local police had a difficult job in resolving the issue and welcomed their initiative to increase availability of community police on Friday and Saturday nights.”

Irene Tait, community council chairwoman, asked PC Lowe to keep in touch with the community council about the residents’ concerns.