PARISH councillors have vowed to get tough with young wreckers in a bid to cure a plague of vandalism which has been sweeping the Fair Oak area.

They want to see a crackdown on rowdy gangs who have been intimidating villagers as they walk across the Shorts Road Recreation Ground - known as the New Century Park - at night.

Councillors have been shocked at the way vandalism has been escalating and appealed to the public to help them combat the growing menace.

In a trail of destruction across the park, new seats and fencing have been set on fire and attacked with a pickaxe, dog excrement smeared across play equipment and tops ripped off trees.

The yob behaviour has spread beyond the New Century Park to other parts of the village.

Incidents have included setting fire to a post box and its contents, smashing lights in lamp standards on an estate and attacking the Scout hut and taking canoes.

Parish council chairman Councillor Helen Douglas said: "It has been a very long time since we last suffered such vandalism."

But she warned that it had always been the parish council's policy to prosecute if the culprits were caught. Appealing for information from the public she said: "Someone must have seen someone wandering round the village with an axe."

Mrs Douglas said the parish council continued to press for more policing in the Fair Oak area.

The parish's policy committee agreed that, as a matter of urgency, all options should be explored to tackle the problems of vandalism.

It will be a top-of-the-agenda item at the next full council meeting when measures under discussion will include the installation of closed-circuit TV cameras, more lighting and the possible use of a team of security guards in the area.