THE mother of two ASBO teenagers banned from their local community centre wants the orders lifted so they can attend her youth club.

Elaine Stafford, 36, of Ailsa Road, Shadsworth, is campaigning against council plans to close the area’s community centre, as part of a £4million programme of cuts.

She claims cutting vital services in Blackburn’s most deprived areas will leave children ‘running riot’ and does not want other families to go through what her’s has.

Mrs Stafford believes the projected £300,000 savings would be dwarfed by the expense of handing out ASBOs to ‘bored youngsters’.

But she revealed two of her four teenage children, Paul 17, and David, 15, can’t even access the youth club because of conditions on their orders.

She said: “They are banned from the streets around the centre, the park and the Spar, including Rothesay Road, Dunoon Drive and Bute Road.

"I’m in the process of seeing if there can be an exception to the condition to allow them to come to the youth club.

“But just because my lads are not allowed, I don’t think it’s fair to penalise the rest of the kids by me not running the clubs.”

Mrs Stafford said plans by Blackburn with Darwen Council to axe the local leisure centre and remove funding from the community centre would be terrible for the area.

Her sons, Paul and David, were given ASBOs in February for causing nuisance and disorder in the Shadsworth area, particularly close to the community centre.

Now the mum-of-four, who has been running weekend youth clubs for 85 five to 17-year-olds from the community centre for more than a year, fears other youngsters in one of the borough’s poorest neighbourhoods may go down the same path.

She said: “A lot of people are angry at this double whammy of losing the leisure centre and the community centre.

“We are going to have all these kids out on the street.

"If the centre costs too much to run, how much is it going to cost for a load of ASBOs?

“My two lads were given ASBOs. I put it down to boredom.

"Younger kids with nothing to do are going to end up with orders too.”