NEIGHBOURS living close to a housing and training project for young people claim the rowdy behaviour at the Morecambe Foyer is making their lives a misery.

They claim noise, vandalism and general anti-social behaviour is adversely affecting the community.

But management at The Morecambe Foyer say the behaviour of the 13 young people, aged between 16 to 25, is no more rowdy than a typical student hall of residence.

Thornton Road residents called a meeting this week and enlisted the support of Geraldine Smith to try and resolve the problems.

Miss Smith said: "I'm well aware that, by housing together up to 20 people of a certain age, it can get a bit out of hand and assurances were given at the time that this would not be the case. It's a very good idea in theory, giving young people training and somewhere to live, but I've had one young lad in to see me because he said it was too noisy to study for his college exams. Management have to make sure it's very well run."

Foyer manager, Kim Hilditch, said they had taken "radical action" to tighten up procedures but fundamentally supported the young people at the Foyer who were working hard to improve their lives.

"It's set up like a hall of residence for people who haven't been to university. Yes, the music might be loud sometimes, but we're actually replacing the kitchen windows to resolve this. We've served 24 hour notice procedures recently and increased our powers to ensure good behaviour. I want to work with everyone to ensure we have a happy community which includes young people at the Foyer and local neighbours and residents."