BARRIERS aimed at stopping anti-social behaviour have been vandalised just days after being installed.

The £3,000 gates were put up either side of a tunnel which runs underneath Chorley New Road to Old Station Park in Horwich last week.

But by Friday panels from the metal fencing had been removed at either side to create a cut-through.

Horwich councillor Bob Ronson said: "It was obvious that something like this would happen or that some attempt would be made to destroy the gates because the youths have no concept of other people's property."

Police and fire chiefs had recommended the footpath should be temporarily closed because youths have used the path, which runs through an unlit tunnel, as a meeting place where they drink alcohol, take drugs and set fire to wheelie bins.

But Friends of Old Station Park (FOSP) opposed the closure, saying people use the path to access the park, and it has campaigned for it to be upgraded rather than closed.

Robin Wiseman, chairman of FOSP, said: "The anti-social behaviour in the bridge area is no worse than anywhere else in the park, bearing in mind that there are about nine or ten different groups of teenagers that gather in the park, each of whom have their own meeting areas.

"We are very much in favour of police action against anti-social behaviour, but the park is an open recreational space and blocking access to it is not the way to go, let alone how ugly the thing looks.

"A crackdown on teenage drinking in the park would have a much more salutary effect."

Cllr Ronson said: "Something needed to be done because the tunnel area was being used as an alcohol and drugs den."

The gates were funded using cash from the council's community safety budget, after concerns were raised at a Two Towns Area Forum meeting.