A COMMUNITY centre project is at risk before it is even built because of an uninterested police force, claims a community leader.

Leslie Battams, chairman of Heworth Community Centre, has attacked police for failing to respond to his calls reporting vandalism in the Heworth area - and now fears for the new £210,000 project.

"We haven't even begun building the centre yet, but it looks like we will have to put electric fences up round the building site just so it goes up in the first place," he said.

"We are going to have to spend a significant part of our lottery grant just on security, when we are trying to do this for all the community. And the police just take no notice of calls to try and deal with the issue."

Mr Battams said he called police when he saw vandals destroying a bus shelter near his home in Heworth Without.

He said he waited for ten minutes for the police to answer, without response. He then contacted the local policeman, but he was off-duty and advised him to call 999 to get a response.

"It is just wrong that you have to call 999 to talk to your local policeman, that should be for emergencies."

He said: "But you should be able to get the police to respond while it matters. They ended up coming round two hours later, but they had gone by then. There are groups of youths drinking, and no-one does anything about it.

"I am very fearful for the centre. I am chairing a meeting of the centre trustees and one of our biggest things is going to be how to secure the premises, but we need the police and the street rangers to at least respond if we have a problem."

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "The long call time is not good enough, we openly admit that. With the tens of thousands of calls that come to the police everyday you will get some where we do not perform as we should. We are making massive efforts to do better and it is improving all the time."

Updated: 09:11 Friday, June 06, 2003