DOG owners forced to use a park to exercise their pets instead of the countryside during the foot and mouth crisis have slammed yobs who have left it covered in broken glass.

And they have called on the police and the council to work together to clean-up Accrington's Oak Hill Park.

Judith Knight, 54, of Rothwell Avenue, Accrington, said she was amazed by the level of vandalism in the park and by the fact that it seems to go unchecked.

She said: " You can't walk for broken glass and discarded bottles. It is an absolute disgrace. We have complained to the park keeper and he said the police had been informed but nothing is being done. Apparently gangs of teenagers gather there to drink alcohol and when they have finished they just discard their rubbish. They even smash bottles against the war memorial."

Mrs Knight said many dog owners were being forced to use Oak Hill and other parks to exercise their animals following the closure of public footpaths in the area.

"It is so bad that we just can't walk our dogs in certain parts of the park and there is no way children could play there," she said. "Surely something can be done to stop this."

Pensioner Pat Burgess said it was scandalous that the memorial to young men who gave their lives for their country could be so defiled.

A spokesman for Hyndburn Council said it tried to address vandalism as quickly as possible, but he added there were "problems all over the borough." The war memorial in Gatty Park, Church, is often pelted with eggs.

Coun Brian Walmsley, who holds the leisure portfolio on Hyndburn Council, said: "We have got this problem all over, not just in Oak Hill Park. We are trying to address it but I am reaching a point now where I think 'what else can we do?'

"We have tried educating them and clamping down on them, but nothing seems to sink in.

"We are dealing with big groups here, sometimes of 40 youngsters and we are trying our best to combat the problem but it just seems to get worse."