FURIOUS motorist Jack Rydeheard left his burnt out car on show in a Horwich car park - as a reminder to locals of the area's night time problems.

Mr Rydeheard's Sierra car has been targeted by vandals three times in just six months. Now, he is quitting the town after moving in just a year ago.

The last attack, in the early hours of Saturday morning, saw his K-registered car set alight and destroyed on the town centre car park behind Kwik Save. Mr Rydeheard said: "This happened on a car park that is lit up, opposite people's houses and with a security camera at the end of the street.

"Horwich is a lovely town during the day but when the sun goes down that is it. It becomes like Dodge City.

"At night it is a no-go area for me. There are so many pubs and so many drinking and drug problems.

"The police are coping as best they can but they cannot be in 10 places at once."

Mr Rydeheard, a 49-year-old van driver, moved into a flat on Winter Hey Lane a year ago after living in several places throughout Lancashire. But six months later he found his car, which he had parked on Wright Street, had been vandalised with its door mirrors broken off.

Two months later he discovered two tyres had been slashed. And just days ago he spent more than £300 on repairs and getting the vehicle through its MOT.

He began parking the vehicle on the car park at night thinking it would be safer, but early on Saturday morning he was woken by a neighbour who told him it was on fire. Now, he says he is going to leave the town as soon as possible. He said: "I have lived all over Lancashire, including a really rough estate in Preston, and never had trouble like this.

"I cannot wait to get away from here."

He said the remains of his car can stay on the car park. "It is taxed and insured and it will stay there until I get told to move it. People of Horwich can look at it and realise what the place is like. I am sure a lot of people do not have a clue about what happens at night."

Council leader Barbara Ronson said: "I have asked the police for more information on this. I do feel very sorry for Mr Rydeheard - it seems to be bad luck that he has been targeted three times.

"But his opinion is not the general opinion held by people in Horwich. You get isolated incidents such as this and it will be chased up." Police say they are investigating the incidents.