VICTIMS of rowdy teenagers in Westhoughton are being urged not to suffer in silence.

Police say they can only help tackle the problem if residents come forward and report incidents.

They are concerned that a number of disturbances have gone unreported until days after they took place and say they can only tackle anti-social behaviour if they are told as soon as possible.

The town's four community beat officers say they are determined to stop the recent rise in trouble brought on by late-night drink binges among youngsters.

PC Tony Casey said: "It would be a great help if members of the public didn't keep the information to themselves if they have witnessed something or been disturbed.

"Youths causing a nuisance in the town is a growing problem and it is something we are very keen to tackle.

"But to do that we need people to contact us as soon as they can."

Westhoughton residents will benefit from an open-air drinking ban from the beginning of summer, but officers say they will be relying on residents to act as their "eyes and ears" to help them enforce it. At the moment, we are hearing about incidents second hand and we need to hear about any problems as soon as possible so we can target problem areas," PC Casey added.

"We want to stamp this sort of behaviour out."

Community beat officers PC Casey and PC Dave Hasan can be contacted at Westhoughton police station on 0161 856 5686/5 in the day.

The Greater Manchester Police control room number is 0161 872 5050.