RESIDENTS living near a Barnoldswick park say their lives are being blighted by "boy racers" and their own form of improvised off-roading.

Councillors and police have received complaints over motorists carving up grassed areas around Letcliffe Park by performing handbrake turns, skids and "doughnuts" - sometimes into the early hours of the morning.

The park's lawns and sports pitches are covered by the tyre-tracks of cars, motorcycles and quad bikes, which are free to drive onto the grass from a public access road.

In addition to the noise and disturbance caused by the vehicles, locals say that yobs and vandals are ruining their enjoyment of the park.

Teenagers go there to drink, leaving litter and broken glass on the children's playground, while in recent months a pair of iron gates were rammed with a car, a dry stone wall was partially demolished and fireworks were used to blow up dog litter bins.

Some locals believe the trouble has got worse since the town centre's CCTV system became operational as it has displaced troublemakers to the edge of town.

Well-known local Stanley Graham, who walks his dog on the park, said that groups of cars turned up at the park every Friday night.

He said: "They've got an absolute disregard for anybody else. I once saw a car up here doing handbrake turns on the grass in the middle of the day when there were kids about.

I'm sure the driver was drunk so I got the registration number and rang the police, but they said it was unregistered and they couldn't do anything about it.

"Will they do something about it when one of them runs into a kid?

"There were once two lads on trail bikes doing the same and I gave their names to the police, but again they didn't do anything about it."

He added: "Letcliffe is a really good place. It's used by a lot of people and it's a damn shame that idiots like this are ruining it for everyone else."

Barnoldswick Town Council member David Whipp brought the issue to the attention of the West Craven Committee this week after meeting with 13 residents at Barnoldswick's Civic Hall in December.

It was decided to push for barriers, gates, stones or bollards to be put in place to prevent cars getting onto the grass and it is hoped that funds for the work could be provided by the West Craven Capital Programme over the next two years.

Meanwhile, Barnoldswick police say they have listed Letcliffe Park as a priority for 2006 and hope to improve response times to calls.

Officers urged residents to report incidents immediately and to record number plates where possible.