ANGRY residents in an isolated pit village want to weed out a handful of youngsters who are threatening their tranquillity.

Former schoolteacher Malcolm Berry has suffered at their hands to the tune of several thousand pounds in a series of incidents in Gin Pit village - midway between Astley and Tyldesley.

Motorcyclist Malcolm's Ducati was an insurance write-off after being stolen, dumped and trashed.

His BMW was taken and dumped after thieves had caused £900 worth of damage.

Then a teenage vandal kicked over another bike causing £800 worth of damage.

When he chased the vandals in his car they threw a lump of concrete at the vehicle causing £250 of damage!

He's had to fit alarms to his bikes which cost him £700 and has installed £400 worth of CCTV equipment to monitor the rogues' activity.

In another raid they stole a cover from over his bike and used it to start the village bonfire earlier than organisers had planned.

"There are about eight of them aged between about 14 and 16," said Malcolm.

"They don't live in the village but come from nearby. Usually they are hooded or masked and spend their time terrorising and insulting people or kicking pensioners' walking sticks.

"I'd like to arrange a meeting with community police, a high ranking police officer and locals to get this problem sorted."