A RESIDENTS' group has labelled the Cawdor Court area of Farnworth "a war zone" and said their lives were being blighted by local youths.

The Cawdor Residents Association is determined to stamp out youth nuisance and has published the results of a survey it carried out.

It sent questionnaires to more than 100 houses on and around Cawdor Court to discover the opinions of residents about the area in which they live.

One description of the area was "a war zone" and most people said vast improvements needed to be made.

Treasurer of the Residents Association Tom Gears said: "Nothing has been done here in 25 years and bad tenants are being replaced by even worse tenants.

"We have got drugs, vandalism, cars being set on fire and parents who don't seem to want to know where their kids are.

"There are boarded-up properties and the estate has such a bad stigma no-one wants to live here any more and no-one feels safe."

Drugs were highest on people's list of concerns, with 80 per cent of the residents who took part in the survey wanting action.

They said youths were:

Driving to the community centre late at night;

Throwing eggs at council housing while trespassing near to an old people's home;

Congregating around shops on Harper Green Road causing a nuisance.

A special public meeting was held in the Doe Hey Community Centre to discuss the issues.

Chief Insp Dave Wolstenholme attended to answer questions, along with housing officials and the area's community beat officers.

Chief Insp Wolstenholme said in the last three months there had been 18 house burglaries, 18 burglaries in other premises, one robbery and 36 instances of anti-social behaviour.

He said: "The people have got to be applauded because they have got together and have a very strong residents association. The community spirit is very good. There are problems with youths, but that's a problem we have all over the borough.

"We are working to solve the problem with our partners. We appreciate Farnworth has a problem and that's why we posted our community support officers there to deal with it."