Children in Cullingworth have signed "peace treaty" contracts pledging to be on their best behaviour after trouble threatened to close the youth club down.

In a unique initiative to ensure the future of the group, youngsters have been asked to comply with a trial code of conduct set up by leaders.

More than 70 children regularly attend youth-club sessions in the village primary school. But they were recently stopped on health and safety grounds after boisterous behaviour from some of the youngsters, who are aged from nine to 14 years old.

Now leaders have teamed up with youth-service staff at Bradford Council to draw up the contract which is signed by parents, members and leaders. Under the contract, if the children breach it, the leaders will contact their parents to come and collect them.

Karen Luscombe, who set up the club three years ago, came up with the idea for a set of rules as a deterrent to unruly children and to help teach youngsters to be responsible.

"If one child is causing a problem, rather than close the youth club and let everybody suffer we'd have the right to call their parents to come and remove their child - which is enough to stop most children from causing trouble," she said.

Mrs Luscombe said the club was also considering a yellow- and red-card system so offenders would be given a last chance before their membership was taken away.

Jill Torr, of Hallows Grove, Cullingworth, whose ten-year-old daughter Melissa attends the club, welcomed the contract which includes rules about respecting leaders and other members and bans bad language.

"I think the children need to know they can have fun but they have got to have discipline as well," said Mrs Torr. "They all love it as it gives them a bit of independence. It would have been sad if the actions of a few had caused them all to be penalised."

A spokesman for Bradford Council's youth service said: "The idea is to provide a secure and safe environment and deal in a fair manner with incidents which may arise."

The youth club needs volunteers to help run the tuck shop and organise games and sports. Anyone who can help is asked to contact Mrs Luscombe on (01535) 271389