Published: Friday, 24th April, 2009 7:25am

Loitering youths a worry for residents

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RESIDENTS claim their lives are being made a misery by groups of loitering youths.

A group of residents who attended Prestonpans Community Council claimed that youths hanging about Hawthorn Road, Longdykes Road and Preston Crescent were causing great concern.

'It"s got to the point where I"m too scared to let my kids go out and play,' one resident said.

At the meeting, PC Greg McBeth said: 'It"s going to be a long process with regard to solving the problems. These areas do get checked and we do know they are problem areas.

'We are going to have to see what we can do and it"s important that residents phone the police so we can take action.'

One resident said: 'I have lived in my street for five years now and it"s [the youth disorder] not got any better. People are too scared to report it.'

The community council heard that one elderly woman had asked a group of youths to move on – then spent the next day removing eggs that had been thrown at her house.

East Lothian councillor Willie Innes said: 'It"s important that people keep reporting incidents to the police.

'ASBOs can give people curfews or can ban people from their own houses. It"s about having confidence in the police and the police taking action against the offenders.'

A 31-year-old mother, who lives in Longdykes Road, later told the Courier that she also had her house 'egged' after asking a group of teenagers to move on.

'I have phoned police anonymously to report these groups but they get chased away then come back five minutes later,' she said.

'We get a mouthful of abuse if we ask them to move on and it"s a worry because you don"t want them taking it out on your children but we have to stand up for ourselves. If we speak to the parents they say they can"t do anything about it.'

Sergeant Donnie MacLeod, leader of East Lothian Community Action Team, said: 'I"m aware that there has been some activity in Prestonpans but we are working with parents to address their fears. The issue was raised at the joint agency meeting held last week and plans are afoot to have high visibility teams in these areas.'