RESIDENTS are outraged after youths urinated and pushed dog dirt through letterboxes.

And Darwen MP Janet Anderson says the yobs' parents should pay for their children's behaviour.

Residents in Birch Hall Avenue and Duddon Avenue, Darwen, contacted the MP after problems with youths outside their houses causing damage and shouting abuse.

Mrs Anderson said: "'The juvenile nuisance being experienced by residents on Birch Hall is quite simply intolerable. One resident told me she had even had people urinating through her letterbox.

"The police are doing their best but the real responsibility lies with the parents. There is legislation in place to make them pay for their children's behaviour. It is high time they did."

Elsie Prichard, 58, lives in a flat in Birch Hall Avenue close to a bus shelter where groups play football and drink alcohol in the evenings.

She said: "The younger kids use the shelter as goalposts so there's a constant banging. The the older teenagers come along with their beer cans and bottles at night.

"I've seen them crawling along people's bushes and knocking fences down. I've had my front door handle taken off in the night so I had to call the fire brigade to get me out the next morning.

"I was even told that one of my neighbours had dog dirt put through his letterbox."

Neighbour Donnan Wilson, 33, said: "There's nothing for the kids to do around here."

Police inspector Andrea Bradbury said: "We are in the early stages of hopefully creating some kind of youth facility in the Hyndburn Drive area. We've also been working with youthworks.

"Unfortunately a seat was recently installed in the bus shelter, at the request of an elderly resident, and this has given these youths somewhere to sit which has caused more problems. We're looking into how much this is needed."