ANGRY residents called for undercover cops to take to the streets of Warndon Villages to catch teenage tearaways terrorising the estate.

Members of the public blasted both Warndon Parish Council and West Mercia police for not doing enough to stop the gangs of youths.

Eggs and stones have been thrown at houses, graffiti scrawled on walls and the youngsters had been verbally abusive, the residents told the parish council last night.

In one case a resident said her window had been broken by a shot from a pellet gun.

"Surely the police can contain 15 kids," said one resident, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. "If not, this will soon become a no go area."

Although residents praised the efforts of beat manager PC John McManus, they said one police officer for the area was not enough.

The unnamed resident added that uniformed officers would only make the young people move to a different area and it would take plain-clothes officers to catch them red handed.

"You don't have to be super-intelligent to realise that having plain clothes police officers is the only way to catch these kids," she said.

"I just think it is unacceptable for us to live in a place like this and have no protection."

Parish council members said they too had been victims of petty crime, including David Eastwood, who said youths had tried to throw eggs through his bedroom window.

Chairman of the parish council Maurice Clutterbuck said he too had had windows broken by youths throwing stones.

PC McManus said he believed half the youths involved in the gangs came from Warndon Villages and the other half from "old Warndon".

Vehicle thefts trebled in March

LIGHTER nights have been blamed after the number of thefts from vehicles trebled in Warndon Villages.

The number leapt from six in February to 19 in March - the worst crime figures the estate has seen for a long time.

"We had a spate in a couple of days," beat manager PC John McManus told members of Warndon Parish Council last night. "There were six or seven in one night."

Parish council clerk Les Bishop asked if there was a gang going around the estate carrying out the crimes, but PC McManus said the rise in thefts from vehicles had happened all over the city.

"Most people do not discover the theft until the following morning and it is very difficult to know what time it happened," said PC McManus.

The number of assaults also leapt from one in February to six in March, while the number of reported house burglaries and cycle thefts both rose from one to three over the same time.

Where there had been no drug-related offences in February, there were two in March. The number of breach of the peace incidents also remained higher than normal with 20 in February and 22 in March.