A DRUGS den has been barricaded with steel to keep out users and under-age drinkers.

The hideout is a former outbuilding for the coal mine in Bank Hall Park, Burnley.

Police tried to seal the den with bricks, but the yobs kicked through to get back inside.

So officers have now added a steel cover over the bricks in a bid to finally keep them out.

A fence has also been built on the out-building's roof to prevent any loitering.

For months police have been dealing with incidents of drug taking and under-age drinking at the den.

Police Community Support Officer Gerry Woods said: "This small building was posing a significant problem for the local community and attracting a great deal of anti-social behaviour.

"However, with assistance from partners, we've now solved the problem and hopefully helped to reduce crime in the process.

"This is a fantastic example of local problem solving and shows that when we and other agencies are alerted to an issue, we will do our best to resolve it."

However, a councillor said the real solution to problems was more police and better safety facilities.

Coun Frayling, who lives opposite the park, said: "There have been a number of incidents like muggings in the park recently and there are a lot of problems with anti-social behaviour.

"We have got a community beat manager and two community support officers but they have to cover the whole of the Bank Hall ward so they can't be in the park all the time.

"Although it can help a lot to simply make areas where people have been gathering inaccessible, but when you do that you do run the risk of moving them on somewhere else.

"What we really need is better lighting and more police because anti-social behaviour has definitely got worse recently."

Police worked with Whitbread brewery, which owns the building, and the Queen Victoria hotel which backs onto the park.

The brewery had not known about the den. But police said its bosses had long experienced problems with people shouting abuse and causing problems in the pub car park and supported their application for planning permission to fence it off .