NORTH-EAST MP Vera Baird has accused Cleveland Police of failing to take seriously the rising menace of loutish behaviour by "neighbours from hell".

The Redcar MP told a fringe meeting at Labour's conference that the force was failing to adopt proper techniques to tackle anti-social behaviour.

And she said the reason was that the police viewed such behaviour, including verbal abuse and the throwing of missiles, as "nuisance" rather than "criminal".

Ms Baird told the meeting, organised by the charity Shelter: "The police are not doing sufficient to tackle this anti-social behaviour.

"They still remain solidly unwilling to adopt proper techniques to address what they see as nuisance behaviour, but what is actually criminal behaviour.

"If there was a problem with drugs at a house, then the police would secretly take over one of the vacant houses nearby and stake out the drug house and produce their own evidence.

"But they think it would be ridiculous to use sophisticated techniques to tackle anti-social behaviour.

"They don't see the trauma caused by anti-social behaviour as serious as having a house broken into or a robbery, but, for the victims, it is."

The meeting, to discuss the growing use of anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos), heard that better support was also necessary for problem families.