ELDERLY residents on the troubled Ryelands estate are living in fear at the mercy of young hooligans, it was claimed this week. An elderly couple, who have lived on Ryelands for more than 40 years, contacted the Citizen to speak of their anguish at the levels of violence and anti-social behaviour on the estate. Hooligans threw a bottle through their window at the weekend, terrifying the elderly couple who have since been unable to sleep. This latest act of vandalism follows the death of a Vale pensioner, who died recently after a brick-throwing incident.

"Me and my wife are both in our seventies and we've lived on Ryelands for forty years.

I've watched it go down hill over the years," said the pensioner, who claims a climate of fear on the estate prevents people reporting the trouble makers.

"There's only a few who cause all the trouble and everyone knows who they are but if you say anything to the police you end up getting threatened or your windows smashed. They threw a milk bottle through our window in the early hours of the morning. We couldn't sleep all night and had no heating all day."

The elderly tenant said he had suffered from a catalogue of crime. His house has been burgled three times and there has been one attempted break in. He added: "Everytime we call the police they say that they can't send anyone out straight away because they are in between shifts. It's got terrible round here recently and we are scared about what might happen. We want to carry on living here. Why should trouble makers have it their way?"

Housing chief Cllr Ian Barker said that the council were undertaking a number of initiatives to combat anti-social behaviour.

He said: "The main thing we've done is install a camera which we're hoping will deter some of this type of behaviour. We will also evict any council tenant found guilty of anti-social crimes. It's such a small minority causing all the problems but we need to boost the community spirit and self esteem. There's a lot of residents who are fighting against the odds to improve the estate."

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