A BLACKPOOL pensioner says residents on his street are terrified to go out because of the "drug addicts and alcoholics" in their neighbourhood.

Maurice Weighman, of Molyneux Drive, South Shore, told The Citizen that older people in sheltered accommodation are growing increasingly frightened by the antics of neighbours.

"We live on a small estate and it's always been a good estate," the 73-year-old said. "But the council have put in alcoholics, dead-heads and layabouts here. Some of the things going on defy belief. The police have been here four times this last few days. Two boys were climbing up a blind lady's flat the other night to get to their own flat."

He said drugs have come into the estate, cars have been driven across the grass in the middle of the night and he claimed that one man even had a bullet through his window one night.

Mr Weighman said: "We have complained to the council and nothing is done about it. It's disgraceful. It used to be a nice little estate. People in sheltered flats should not be subjected to all this hassle."

Highfield Ward councillors Lily Henderson and Susan Fowler admitted there was a problem with anti-social behaviour and said it was being addressed.

Coun Fowler said: "It's a real shame. It is a problem and it needs to be addressed in whatever way we can. People with different living habits have been thrust on unsuspecting people. We have to house these people but I do agree as a councillor for the area that there are certain undesirables that have drug or alcohol dependency."

Coun Henderson said the council was complying with national legislation in housing people of all backgrounds, including those dealing with drug or alcohol issues, in the same area.

"The idea was that if you put them with decent people then they will come up, but it doesn't happen," she said.

She said Blackpool Borough Council was looking to try a new policy which would mean only people aged 40 plus would be housed above sheltered accommodation in the Molyneux Drive area.

But she warned that even older people could be anti-social, particularly "if they are already on the road to alcoholism when they get there".

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden said evidence of anti-social behaviour was being gathered, and commented: "It's the council's responsibility to make sure that the tenants they install, whether they are older, younger or whatever, don't indulge in anti-social behaviour."

A council spokesman said: "We are working closely with the local residents' association and police. Blackpool Borough Council does take nuisance cases seriously but we need to work together on them."