DRUNKEN youths are causing fear and intimidation on Friday nights in a peaceful dale community after transporting carrier bags of alcohol by public transport.

Coun Mandy Harrison told members of Middleton in Teesdale Parish Council that she had received numerous telephone calls at her home until ten o'clock at night complaining about their behaviour.

"They are not from the village, they are coming from Barnard Castle and bringing booze in carrier bags on the bus," she added.

She spoke out at Tuesday's meeting, which had earlier been addressed by community safety officer, Sgt Mick Hutchinson. He told members there was no quick answer to anti-social behaviour. If youths were part of the problem, they needed to be part of a solution.

Coun Harrison told him that during the latest incident, youths had fallen "paralytic" on to her car.

"I phoned the police three times but there was nobody able to come out, and that was sad," she said. "I feel for them because they are undermanned and they were also dealing with incidents in Barnard Castle and Richmond, but this needs nipping in the bud."

Coun John Miller felt perhaps the police needed to rethink their manpower if there was trouble in Middleton as well as the other two towns.

PC Don Luke, who also attended the meeting, said he would speak to Insp David Allaway about their concerns. If this was happening every Friday and they knew which bus it was, they could "cut them off at the pass".

The latest complaints follows damage in the local churchyard, reported in last week's D&S Times, which caused the council's former chairman, John Cronin, to write to members saying he was saddened and concerned at such behaviour.

He asked they make strong representations to the police, feeling if strong action was not taken, things would go from bad to worse. A lot of the problems were drink-related and he wondered if the council would consider a bylaw banning alcohol on the streets.

However, Sgt Hutchinson said they must not lose sight of the fact that they lived in a safe area. They were not talking about major crime, just a little bit of anti-social behaviour.

He also wondered whether it might be worthwhile to have young people represented on the parish council, which members agreed to consider.