NEW figures have revealed that East Lancashire has some of the worst anti-social behaviour rates in the country.

Blackburn has been ranked fifth out of 344 local authorities, while Burnley is just one place behind in sixth.

Hyndburn doesn’t fair much better at 13th although the story was mush better for neighbouring Ribble Valley, ranked 187th.

To some extent, the figures can be seen as good news as they show that people are prepared to report anti-social behaviour in the county because they believe the police will take action.

And officers say the actual number of offences, just over 12,000 in Blackburn last year, is actually on the decrease. But it also shows that we have more than our fair share of ‘challenging’ residents and ‘dysfunctional families’.

As Hyndburn MP Graham Jones remarked, there is still a ‘booze and fags' culture where morons think it’s OK to treat other people badly’. These crimes are often low level nuisance which can have a real impact on their victims. They can go on day in, day out for long periods of time making people’s lives a misery.

The police have pledged that anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated anywhere in the county.

We can all play our part in stopping this behaviour by reporting it to the police whenever we see it.