A DISABLED grandfather has called for somebody to blow the final whistle on children playing football next to his house.

David Baxter, 61, of Trinity Street, Oswaldtwistle, who suffers from severe arthritis, has had to cope with verbal abuse, broken fences, litter and balls thudding against his house day and night for the past ten years.

And after seven months of increased noise the retired caretaker has said he has had enough -- prompting police and Hyndburn Council to investigate what can be done to help.

Mr Baxter said he wanted the council to clean up the area, erect wire fencing and give the children another area to play in. He said a lot of elderly people live in the area and they have had to put up with the abuse and vandalism for far too long.

Mr Baxter said that the problem started after the council took a section of garden from four council houses to build on. But after they discovered a natural spring, they deemed the land unfit for construction and since then it has remained spare.

"Then ten years ago the children started to play there. They play football at all hours, they've broken countless wooden panels, which over the years has cost up to £2,000, they're always smashing the ball against our windows and shouting abuse at us when we go out, it's just really bad.

"I'm not very well and I can't get too wound up by things and this is not helping at all. But its not just me, its everybody around here, we're all suffering.

"I want the council to fence the land with wire fence which won't break all the time and to give the children somewhere else to play. They could even give the land back to those houses they took it if all those years ago."

Coun Jean Lockwood said: "I feel for the elderly people who live there and there are a lot of them. They have to put up with shouting all day every day, abuse and swearing, and not just from the children but from their parents as well.

"But the children need somewhere to go, it is difficult. They used to have a basketball area near Rowan Avenue that the council did up four or five years ago, but the children completely wrecked it, it cost thousands of pounds."

Jean Battle, portfolio holder for housing, said: "I have spoken to Mr Baxter and I realise it has been very upsetting for him and his neighbours for some time now. "I have asked the housing officer Nigel Fenton to look at the issue and he will report back to me."

Chief Inspector Phil Cottam said it was a problem experienced by many people and reflected the whole issue of juvenile nuisance.

"It is a situation I feel passionate about, it is unacceptable and something more needs to be done. I have put area beat officers in places where they will have the maximum benefit of coming into contact with these children -- in schools to try to get them into situations where they see what is right and what is wrong.

"I am looking to get beat officers in every ward, so there is light at the of the tunnel."