A SCHEME aimed at blitzing juvenile nuisance in Blackburn blackspots has slashed cases of kids behaving badly by up to 70 per cent.

But council bosses were today told they still had a long way to go to get the problems under control across the rest of the borough.

The three-year £300,000 programme was launched this July in a bid to get youngsters off street corners and stop them vandalising property, throwing stones and hurling abuse.

Blackburn with Darwen Council particularly targeted juvenile nuisance in the problem areas of Whitebirk, Mill Hill and Bank Top as part of the scheme.

Now it has revealed that in Whitebirk and Mill Hill calls to police about youngsters misbehaving between July and October dropped from a total of 219 last year to 138 this year.

Bank Top a similar fall, prompting 74-year-old resident Margaret Coker to say local people felt safer in the street.

But other areas in Blackburn do not have the same feel-good factor. A public meeting last night heard that the Infirmary area has seen an 11 per cent increase in juvenile nuisance over the past month.

Residents there said they were still worried about the problem. Nigel Brook, a Community Beat Officer, who works in the Infirmary area and Mill Hill, told the meeting: "With juvenile nuisance I personally feel we have a long way to go."

And one elderly female resident, who did not want to be identified, said: "We have youngsters 13 to 14 years old drinking and making a lot of noise and sometimes its two or three in the morning."

Blackburn with Darwen Council said its Positive Activities for Young People programme had been hailed as a "roaring success" with parents, young people, shops and businesses praising the initiative.

The programme will continue to target problem areas in the next two years.

Margaret Coker, who has lived in Ashworth Close, Bank Top, for more than 20 years, said: "I think a lot of people including myself feel much safer now.

"On their behalf I would like to say a big thank you to organisers of the schemes. There was quite a lot of vandalism and it could be intimidating for many people just going to the shops.

"Now, because of this scheme, kids I don't even know say hello to me and I'm getting to know many of them."

Children were given the chance to play a variety of sports which included cycling, climbing and archery and workshops in drama and music were held.

Camping trips were also organised and children were sent on three day residential courses at an activity centre in the Lake District.

John Ratcliffe, one of the council officers responsible for delivering the programme, said: "This was about giving children something worth getting out of bed in the morning for and keeping them off the streets."

Council leader Sir Bill Taylor said the reduction in calls to police meant the £300,000 was money well spent.