On the night Lee Mullis and Stuart Adams were killed on a railway line, The Northern Echo was spending the evening with a new police team set up to solve the problem of youngsters hanging around the streets and causing trouble. Olivia Richwald reports.

FRIDAY night and the streets of Darlington become a playground for hundreds of kids who have nothing to do and nowhere to go.

Huge throngs of teenagers are mooching through estates, meeting in parks and downing litres of cider and cans of beer.

Although most of the youths keep to themselves, they are an intimidating sight for the residents of the estates they inhabit.

It is Good Friday and the first night of the Easter holidays. Spirits are high and so are many of the kids - on alcohol, cannabis and mob mentality.

Last year, there were almost 5,000 reported incidents of young people causing problems in Darlington.

So in February this year, the police set up a unit dedicated to cracking the problems caused by a hard-core of about 50 trouble-making youths who are co-ordinating the terror.

I joined Sergeant Dave Kirton and uniformed warden Stuart Hodgson, of the StreetSafe unit, in their police van at about 9pm on Friday.

They had already had four arrests when they heard over the police radios that two teenagers had been killed after playing on the railway line at the Five Arches Bridge, off North Road.

The news shocked everyone, but had a profound effect on Sgt Kirton's close-knit team, which has dedicated the past few months trying to get teenagers like Lee Mullis and Stuart Adams off the streets.

The unit comprises four PCs, uniformed warden Mr Hodgson and Sgt Kirton, who are now on first-name terms with more than 100 Darlington youths.

It has been a battle for Dave and Big Stu (as they are known on the estates) who have won the respect of most of the young people they deal with.

Our first call is to Mayfair Road, where there have been reports of drunken youths staggering across the road.

Siren screaming and tyres screeching round corners we arrive and jump out. The kids have vanished, but Mr Hodgson darts into a cut-through and catches a 15-year-old kicking a car.

He is hauled over into the van where he is locked in the back. He smells strongly of alcohol.

It is only when the silent teenager gets to the police station it is discovered he has just witnessed the horrific train accident and is sobbing, deeply traumatised.

Sgt Kirton and Mr Hodgson offer the boy words of support and we drive him home.

The pair take me on a whirlwind tour of the trouble hotspots in Branksome, Mowden, Skerne Park and Firthmoor, all the time keeping their eyes out for groups of kids.

Mr Hodgson says: "All the kids are very territorial, centred around schools, and they don't go to other estates. The Dolphin Centre is seen as a neutral zone, but none of the youngsters we work with want to go there.

"They all have phones so they are like a mobile army, you can disperse them from one place and minutes later they have regrouped."

Each time we see a group, we stop and the pair exchange a few good-hearted words with the teenagers.

In North Lodge Park, we pull over and the officers go over to three youngsters sitting on a bench. "Hi Amy, how are you doing?" Mr Hodgson says to an innocent-looking girl munching sweets. She explains she has just been to the shop and is just hanging about.

"This is my new boyfriend, Danny," Amy says offering up her sweets.

"He looks a bit young for you," Mr Hodgson teases.

"Stand up," Amy says, tugging the boy by his sleeve. "Look, he's shorter than me, but he's actually older."

In Skerne Park a grinning child walks up to the window. He is barely tall enough to see in and looks too vulnerable to be out on the wrong side of 11pm on a Friday.

"We've not seen that little fella for ages," says Sgt Kirton, as we approach.

"Hiya Mark, how ya doin'?" he asks. The boy grins and giggles.

"You've been smoking cannabis tonight, haven't you mate," they ask. It is a rhetorical question, but there is nothing they can do because he no longer has the drug on him.

The team is tackling the estates one by one and has already achieved a lot in Branksome in only three weeks. Teenagers used to hang out outside the off-licence - but simply lighting up the yard outside has solved that problem.

Gangs of up to 150 kids started affecting business at The Model T pub three months ago. We go there tonight and there is not a kid in sight. The pub is bustling.

The landlord has a mobile phone number for the team, which has promised him they will respond to any problems he may have while they are on duty.

Alcohol was a major problem in Branksome, but the team has dried up the supply by stopping older people buying the alcohol and negotiating with off-licences to stop them selling the 99p litre bottles of white cider - the teenagers' favourite way to get drunk.

Sgt Kirton says: "There is nothing for these kids to do on a Friday night. They are not drunk anymore, but they are still hanging around the streets in big groups.

"We have talked to the headteacher of Branksome School about getting some kind of provision for young people. More youth provision at the weekend would sort this out."

The team members feel passionately that until they can get the kids off the streets and into youth clubs, alcohol-free raves and community centres, there is still a danger more teenagers will get hurt.

Near the Commercial Street car park we meet Rachel, staggering into the road with a friend on her arm. The girls look barely old enough to go shopping unaccompanied - but here they are at 11.30pm on a Friday, surrounded by drunken adults spilling out of the pubs.

Rachel is 14 and known to the officers. She has a binge drinking problem but, as Sgt Kirton says, "at least she is now in the system". She is receiving counselling for her alcohol problem.

Rachel tells us she has drunk only one litre of cider. But as we drive off, Sgt Kirton says: "She's had two at least."

The team has won the hearts and minds battle with the young people and will be offering groups incentives such as trips away and football matches should they behave.

They have already run several sporting events and eventually hope to set up proper youth clubs, which can be run in and by the community to keep the kids in a safe environment.

They passionately believe that most of the youngsters they work with are fundamentally good, but blame the parents for letting them run wild.

"Half the parents don't know what their kids are up to," says Mr Hodgson.

"They would be shocked if they knew. We have taken alcohol off children as young as ten.

"Parents have no idea that their kids are walking round in groups of up to 100, the majority drunk. What can you do?"

* The names of the young people have been changed to protect their identities