A FOOTBALL club plagued by vandals has criticised police for failing to kick out yobs despite handing them a key to the ground.

Bacup Borough manager Brent Peters said anti-social behaviour has escalated in recent months with Thorn Primary School and Bacup Cricket Club also becoming targets.

Officials at the club have estimated the cost of the damage at the West View ground to total thousands of pounds.

But officers today said they were taking steps to end the problems.

The West View boss is calling for police to step-up security measures after the club was broken into, the coach window was smashed, seats in the ground were vandalised and windows at Thorn Primary School were smashed.

Mr Peters said: "It's not just a problem at the football club, it's an anti-social behaviour problem in this area. I have been here for eight years and in all that time the problem has never been as bad. Teenagers are scaling the wall to get into the ground and they are fooling around, drinking, taking drugs and getting up to things they shouldn't be at their age. The seats are being damaged, perhaps not intentionally but because boys and girls are getting up to no good on them."

He added: "I gave the police a key to the ground 12 months ago so they could go in to explore the ground properly when they were on patrol because just shining a torch in is no good because they hide round the corner.

"I have written to Inspector Dave Shepherd to ask for something to be done. We have CCTV cameras throughout the town and it's about time we had some up here.

"I am here at the club all the time and the police don't even get out their cars.

"They drive up , see that nobody is around and then drive off but the kids are in hiding in places where you wouldn't be able to see them unless you got out of the car."

Today police Sergeant Dave Alexander said: "We have been made aware of the problem and the community beat manager and the community safety officer are making inquiries to look at ways to tackle the problem.

"We will be taking positive steps to catch these people."