ANGRY residents claim teenagers will cause chaos near their homes when a new car park and replacement changing pavilion are built on playing fields.

People living in the Royds Avenue area of Accrington say noise and disturbance will escalate when the new facilities are built at the King George V sports ground.

And they fear the new car park will be used as a rink for skateboarders and street skaters.

Protesters are demanding Hyndburn Council builds the facilities further away from their homes.

The original pavilion at the playing fields was destroyed by fire in April last year and residents claimed that when it disappeared so did many of the problems they experienced with young people meeting at the site.

They reacted angrily to council plans to rebuild, extend and improve the changing facility and build a new 25-space car park.

Residents aired their views with councillors at a meeting this week.

They said they were now having to put up with hundreds of cars parking in Royds Avenue, bringing problems of noise, bad language and litter. They claimed the car park would do nothing to alleviate congestion and was so near to their homes vehicles would be parked next to their perimeter fences.

And they said the region would become a base for young people.

Hyndburn Coun Derek Scholes said: "The residents just want the pavilion and car park located in a different area of the playing fields."

But councillors at the development services committee meeting approved the new pavilion on the same site, provided no further objections were raised.

Coun Cath Thom pointed out there were similar problems with parking near the Wilsons Playing Fields in Clayton-le-Moors.

She said: "I do have sympathy with these people.

"But the field has been here a long time and if you buy a house next to a sports field you are going to get people parking when they come to play sports."

Councillors also gave their approval to a similar scheme to build a new pavilion at White Ash Playing Fields, Oswaldtwistle.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.