BRITAIN'S chief law lord visited Stourport to hear from a pensioner who had taken the fight against a teenage yob to the courts.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, was told that striking at persistent offenders was the best way to split up gangs by Windmill Close resident Frank Bond, 67.

Mr Bond led a residents' campaign for magistrates to give 15-year-old Warren Peckham an anti-social behaviour order, which banned him from Windmill Close, in Areley Kings, last September.

The pensioner told Lord Falconer, head of the judiciary and the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs: "The vast majority of people round here are decent people.

"If you get to the core then, you don't need to worry about anybody else. If you can get those who are causing the trouble, who are causing other kids to misbehave, then it is much better for everybody else."

Lord Falconer said that "focusing on the persistent offenders" was vital.

"You have got to provide some assistance there. You have got to be tough but you have also to provide some support so you can stop it on a long-term basis," he warned, however.

Mr Bond started a petition to get Peckham barred from the street. The youth faces jail if he breaks the order, due to last until March, 2007.

Mr Bond said: "The way I was brought up was the same as them, but worse, so I'm not afraid."

Lord Falconer, who famously shared a flat with Prime Minister Tony Blair in the 1970s, said "respect had gone down" and people were now "ruder".

While meeting Mr Bond and two other residents, he said: "You are obviously strong as a community and supporting each other."

Afterwards, Lord Falconer told the Shuttle/Times & News he thought ASBOs were clearly having an effect: "I think they help. I think, without them, there was very little that local authorities and police could do but now they have got a weapon.

"We have got to recognise it is only one weapon in a tool kit against crime and anti-social behaviour."

He also backed Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate, Marc Bayliss, for the Wyre Forest seat at the next general election, tipped by many to take place in May.

He said: "Marc is an excellent and very strong Labour candidate and he will make a real difference to Wyre Forest.

"Wyre Forest needs a voice which is able to talk directly to the Government."