SCHOOLchildren are to speak to fellow pupils in a bid to protect their area from vandals.

And now more children and teenagers are being encouraged to follow in their footsteps and get involved in improving their neighbourhood.

Residents and councillors fed up of youths causing trouble and damage in the Whitehall area of Darwen have set up a committee with the aim of solving the problem. The Friends of Whitehall Park got together and held a couple of meetings to discuss the issue of young people drinking and going to the park and causing damage. But Coun Karimeh Foster, who has been involved in the setting up of the group, is urging more young people to take an interest.

She said: "We have two people aged between 12 and 14 years. We need more children to get involved and hopefully the members will start their action plan soon to look at what they can do to prevent the youth trouble.

"There is a lack of facilities for young people in Whitehall and in Darwen so they will be looking into ways of keeping youngsters occupied so they don't turn to drinking and causing a nuisance.

"Whitehall is starved of funding because it is not a socially deprived area. We were trying to find any funding and the only solution was to put a Friends of Whitehall together and bid for any money available."

Resident June Ellison said: "The two young girls attended the meeting last week and got involved in the discussions, which was good. They were asked what kinds of things they would like to see in the park and one of them told how she had been on holiday and one piece of equipment she enjoyed was a large tyre swinging on chains, which would be quite easy to provide.

"It was nice that she could come back with ideas and that we got younger opinions.

"It would be even better if we could encourage more children to get involved. Hopefully if young people attend the meetings, they will learn to appreciate things more."