POLICE and community leaders in York hit out today at the judge's ruling which bans officers from taking teenagers home in an effort to prevent night-time trouble.

York's first dispersal area in Clifton has been hailed as a success after it gave police the right to break up trouble-making gangs of under-16s in the no-go zone and frogmarch yobs home if they resisted.

Since the curfew zone was introduced seven weeks ago, 26 youths have been taken home, and 21 groups broken up.

But, according to the Home Office, police will no longer have the right to force youngsters home, although they will still be able to disband gangs.

It follows a landmark court victory for a 15-year-old yesterday, as a London judge declared police had no power to use force to take youngsters home under tough new antisocial behaviour laws.

The teenager had been in a "dispersal area" in Richmond, London, when he was stopped by police.

Although not actually taken home, he said he was "extremely distressed" and did not feel he could return to the town centre in the evenings without his parents.

Sergeant Rick Ball, of York's neighbourhood policing team, said: "This is watering down a very effective piece of legislation that we were able to use to try and help the larger community - it's not helpful. When I've been patrolling the area with my team I've noticed a big difference in the area - there aren't the large concentrations of youths that we used to have.

"We are still going to patrol Clifton and we are still going to use the powers that we have."

Ward councillor Ken King said police should have the right to take home youngsters.

"I feel pretty confident that the police in North Yorkshire would have the common sense to use this particular law in the interests of the child and local residents," he said.

"I'm not sure it's up to a judge to make those decisions - it's up to Parliament to make law and magistrates to carry it out."

Allen Pepper, manager of Jackson's store in Burton Stone Lane in Clifton, said the new ruling could have a heavy impact on the store's ability to control gangs which loitered outside his shop.

"The powers the police had beforehand worked very well," he said. "The trouble we had outside the shop has reduced significantly. This is going to hinder us."

The Home Office is planning to appeal against the judge's ruling, a spokeswoman confirmed yesterday.

She said: "We believe that the police should have reasonable force to take children home, otherwise the police could do nothing if a child refused to be taken home."

North Yorkshire police spokesman Tony Lidgate said the force would study the judge's ruling "with interest".

Updated: 10:24 Thursday, July 21, 2005