VISITING teenage yobs have turned a local amenity centre in the up-market Valley Park area of Chandler's Ford into a vandalism hot-spot, it has been claimed.

Valley Park Community Centre has been repeatedly targeted, along with the general area around Pilgrims Close, with repair bills running into thousands of pounds.

Now, a call has gone out for the community to become the eyes and ears of the police in a bid to stop the wreckers.

Prospective Tory parliamentary candidate for Romsey, Paul Raynes, who lives locally, has recently been elected treasurer of the Valley Park Community Association, which runs the hall.

He said: "The level of vandalism has substantially increased over the past year or so. There has been significant damage to the community centre itself for which council taxpayers and the community association have had to foot the bill.

"Just one window-breaking spree cost nearly £1,000 to repair and even the sign outside the community centre has been smashed."

Mr Raynes said various initiatives had been taken to counter the vandals, including improving lighting - only for the lights to be smashed.

"They have smashed windows to get into the centre out of the cold and sit in various rooms. It is known that those responsible are outsiders and don't live locally.

"It is ridiculous that in a good area like this we have to put up with repeated vandalism of this kind. If they aren't stopped, these idiots are just serving an apprenticeship that will lead to worse anti-social behaviour."

Mr Raynes said the police had been supportive. But with sparse resources, they could not be on the spot often enough to deter the vandals while the courts were not backing police action when offenders were brought to book.

Meanwhile, Mr Raynes has appealed to local residents to report any incidents of vandalism that they witness.

Eastleigh-based police inspector Paul Newstead said: "There are regular calls to that area - although it has been quiet since the middle part of December.

"There is a new beat officer taking over who will be aware of this problem and it is good that this matter has been highlighted in this way."