POLICE today revealed the secret to their success in the war against vandals wrecking Corporation Park -- four small keys.

As detailed plans for the restoration of Blackburn's Victorian park were unveiled after more than a year of planning, police revealed that crime had been stamped out there.

For almost a decade, Corporation Park had been a haven for criminals, including sex attackers and thieves.

But in the last two years, it has been targeted by vandals who have repeatedly wrecked the Victorian conservatory and arsonists who reduced the bowling green pavilion to ashes along with benches and bins.

Community beat officer PC Martin Hulme said: "People would ring us to report problems. But because the gates were locked, we would have to leave the cars and walk inside.

"By the time we found out what was going on we had been radioed to another job.

"The solution was quite simple, we asked for a set of keys from the council so we could open the gates.

"This has enabled us to do regular patrols around the car park and the youngsters who had been causing all the trouble seem to have melted away.

"At the same time, we have used plain-clothed officers to catch people using the area to take drugs and the word seems to have got around that they can no longer do that in the park.

"For the first time in a long time, we have gone a whole month without a crime being reported in the park and we want to build on that."

He said several calls about youngsters firing fireworks off the park's battlements had been logged but similar were being recorded across the borough.

They had averaged about four crimes a month in the park about vandalism previously.

The continuing vandalism had cast a shadow over a planned £2million lottery-funded refurbishment of the park, listed as one of the 10 most important open spaces in the country by English Heritage.

Under the project, which will be submitted in detail later this month for approval by the Lottery, areas like the Italian gardens, the garden of remembrance and the fountains will all be restored and CCTV fitted.

Darren Bell from Blackburn with Darwen Council is one of the horticultural officers overseeing the project. At a meeting held on Wednesday to update park supporters on the bid, he said: "A key part of the project is showing that once the work is done, it will be maintained.

"We are looking at the possibility of park wardens and there will be staff to maintain what we do."

He said that real work on the park would not start until 2006, although some work would take place before then, including the removal of some overgrown trees in the next few weeks.