THE 24-year-old owner of a Bewdley hairdresser's salon has said she is losing her will to battle a campaign of harassment and intimidation from teenage yobs who have vandalised her business and driven away her customers.

Hayley Marshall said the tide of violence and damage against her salon in Queensway was so great she could no longer afford to carry out vital repairs and was slowly watching the death of a business she took over aged just 20.

Attempted arson, paving slabs hurled through the front window and now, this week, offensive graffiti proclaiming to be from "the Bark Hill crew" have made life a living hell at Sculptures Hair and Beauty, she said.

Miss Marshall, who has just bought a house with her fiance, told the Shuttle/Times and News: "I am trying to make a living and get on and I can't afford to keep doing this. The amount of damage I have been paying to repair, I haven't got the money. I'm just starting out.

"The way I feel is that I want to move but it is affording to move somewhere else and I have my clientele here.

"The business has potential but the kids are ruining it for me."

Customers were being driven away as yobs shouted bad language at those who used the Wribbenhall salon.

Persistent youths had also hijacked a ledge on the outside of the building to use for skateboarding, despite Miss Marshall's protests.

"I had one woman come in in tears because she had been given abuse," she said, "and nobody wants to come into a vandalised shop."

Sounding choked as she recounted other attacks, the Stourport-born Wordsley resident said paper had been set alight and pushed through her letterbox, the phone line had been torn from the outside of the building and thugs had smashed the front door in an attempt to trigger a newly-fitted alarm.

A CCTV camera system would help, she said but would have to be paid for out of her own pocket.

The Shuttle/Times and News reported this summer how residents lived in fear of "gang war" after clashes between youths from Wribbenhall and Bark Hill, on the western side of the town.

... and mar bid

for skate park

CONCERNS about bad behaviour dominated residents' objections to plans for a skateboard park on the Queensway estate when the bid was put before councillors.

Human excrement had been found at the proposed site, beside Wribbenhall First School, along with empty alcohol containers, members of Bewdley Town Council were told.

Youths had made life a misery for residents of Shaw Hedge Road, where Wyre Forest Community Housing has applied to build the skate park, said resident, Brian Miles.

"It just isn't good enough," he told Monday's meeting of the council's planning committee.

The skate plan has been put forward after a long-mooted skate park bid for land by Bewdley Leisure Centre fell through.

Councillor Frank Baillie said at this week's meeting that a previous skate park in Bewdley had been "trashed and set on fire".

He added he had "total sympathy" with Mr Miles but said the leisure centre plan "had been complained about by the residents in that immediate area, based on the same reasons you have put forward".

Councillor Nigel Knowles said he was worried about youths' "complete disrespect" for the Shaw Hedge Road site, which includes a play area.

"I can't support the idea of a skate park because the fear is it will exacerbate the situation," he said

Mr Miles told the Shuttle/Times & News the play area had been vandalised and that used condoms and empty vodka bottles had been recovered. Human excrement had been found in a hedge at the bottom of his garden, added Mr Miles, a former police dog handler.

The committee agreed to urge Wyre Forest District Council's planning (development control) committee not to take the final decision on the plan on November 16.

District councillors should wait until a full residents' consultation has been carried out by community housing, members said.

The town council would refuse the plan if district councillors decided to vote on it this month.