A charity circus show raising money for Airedale Hospital was ruined this week by young hooligans.

Police were called ten times to stop the youngsters destroying the performances in Keigh-ley's Victoria Park.

And the chairman of Brad-ford council's leisure services department, Cllr Barry Thorne, who witnessed some of the incidents, admits the council is having 'major problems' in the park.

Kim Bauer, manager of Circus Starr which ran the events, says in addition to calling the police she had to hire two security guards to man the entrance to the red and white-striped circus tent.

"These youths had been nothing but trouble, spitting at us and jumping on people's cars," she says. "When the police arrived, they even spat at them. It was awful.

"A lot of people were too frightened to watch the shows, which was such a shame. They ruined it for everyone."

Cllr Thorne, says the youths were being 'bloody painful', according to what he witnessed on Wednesday night.

He admits: "We are having major problems in the park which is why we are now in the process of installing closed-circuit television cameras and ensuring we have security staff down there. But it's getting the police to respond quickly that is the problem at the moment."

Cllr Thorne hopes the cameras will be in place in about a month's time.

Insp Mick Hopwood, of Keighley police, says: 'We can confirm that we have responded to a report of damage to a car in Victoria Park and we are investigating the circumstances of that damage. On a general note, we do deploy regular patrols to Victoria Park and its surrounding area and will continue to do so."

He adds that if anyone has any information concerning damage in Victoria Park they should ring Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Local businesses, the disabled, youngsters and the elderly were invited to watch members of Circus Starr fly through the air, tumble along the ground and wrestle with saws and daggers.

The nine-member travelling charity circus, which is based in Cheshire, put on two shows on both Tuesday and Wednes-day to raise funds for the Trust. The proceeds from the two-day spectacle were split between the Trust and the circus. Included were contortionists, a parallel-bars act, tumblers, a saw and dagger balancing act, a trapeze artist, an aerial display and Alex the Italian Clown.

On Wednesday night the circus left Keighley for Middles-brough, Newcastle and Edin-burgh.

Its artistes travel around the country throughout the year raising cash for charities.

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