A team of trouble-shooters has stepped into a York estate where nuisance youths have forced a community centre to close at night.

Representatives from the City of York Council and North Yorkshire Police attended the Bell Farm Estate Residents' Association meeting last night and listened to growing concerns from local people, who said groups of youths were becoming an increasing problem.

The joint police-council team is designed to target anti-social behaviour and has already been working in Etty Avenue and Foxwood.

One resident, Kevin Webster, said youths had thrown sticks at parrots in his aviary. He said: "I'm sick of telling them to go away."

John Bolton, community safety officer at York police, urged residents not to take matters into their own hands but to report every case of nuisance to the Bell Farm estate manager, Kate Barrett.

He said: "We will target the main offenders, but our routes to solving the problems will not work overnight. We have to all work together."

Bell Farm community police officer Howard Smelt-Webb said: "I have been aware of more and more problems around this area in recent months."

He said he now had a list of 38 youths who had been creating a nuisance and, together with Mrs Barrett, he was writing to parents and visiting the youths' homes in an attempt to make parents aware of what is going on.

He said: "We can turn the screws on the parents."

The nuisance problem was highlighted two weeks ago when 40 youths ran amok outside the Bell Farm Social Hall and frightened people inside.

Mary Leeming, who was in the building at the time of the incident, said she was terrified. She said: "Since that night I have not been for my Evening Press after dark. I feel terrorised. I have walked these streets day and night for years but I won't anymore."

Chairman of the residents association, Mark Craven, agreed that the council and police team should attend the next meeting in January and work with the residents over several months to try and tackle the problem.

emma.harrison@ycp.co.uk