POLICE and council top brass have been accused of abandoning rural areas following a weekend of teenage nuisance in Worsthorne.

Chairman of the parish council Tony Lambert said the village had been plagued with youngsters running riot on Friday and Saturday nights, but that police had failed to respond.

But today police said they had deployed patrols to the area and could not find signs of trouble.

Coun Lambert also accused the council of letting the village down in their preparations for Remembrance Sunday by failing to clean up litter in the area around the war memorial.

He said the state the memorial was in was a disgrace for the 100 or so people attending the commemorations.

However a council spokesman today said: "The area was cleaned on Saturday prior to the service. A council officer is returning to make sure the work met the required standard."

Coun Lambert said teenagers targeted areas like Worsthorne because they knew no police would be on patrol.

He said over the weekend youngsters had smashed the glass in an antique lamp on the village green, had tried to break the windows in the Reading Rooms and had been throwing stones at cars.

In one incident he said he and wife Brenda had been targeted by yobs hurling stones at their taxi as they returned home from a night out on Saturday.

He said: "Worsthorne has been abandoned by the police and the council. There must have been 30 teenagers running riot this weekend and they know there are no police around. The police do not even come when you ring them because juvenile nuisance is not considered a priority.

"Our local bobby does what he can and my criticism is not aimed at him, but at the hierarchy.

"It isn't just the police either. The area around the war memorial was a disgrace for Remembrance Sunday because of the litter and that was after a week of trying to get the council to come and do something about the mess."

But a police spokesman said: "Pro-active patrols were carried out by the police community support officer this weekend, who made a specific point of visiting the centre of Worsthorne. He reports that it was all quiet the vast majority of the weekend.

"We did receive a call from Mr Lambert at around concerning youths throwing stones.

"A patrol was deployed but while we were there, although there were youths in the square, they weren't causing any problems.

"We believe policing in Worsthorne is adequate. The police will continue to target those responsible for causing anti-social behaviour but others, including the community and council also have a role to play in tackling the issues."