A 100-DAY blitz to crack down on anti-social behaviour has been launched.

As one of the 50 Together Action Areas set up to tackle nuisance behaviour, Easington District Council has planned a major drive to clean up neighbourhoods.

The authority, which has endured more problems than most areas in the region, will be concentrating on the 50 key anti-social behaviour hotspots.

The initiative, which will run until the end of May, will deal with a range of problems which have been identified by the local community safety partnership.

Areas which will be concentrated on will include dealing with youths causing a nuisance, sales of alcohol to underage youngsters, graffiti, fly-tipping, vandalism, arson and hoax calls to emergency services.

Throughout the campaign, organisations including Easington District Council, the police and the fire and rescue brigade will provide a co-ordinated response to tackle anti-social problems within hotspot areas.

Those responsible for running the campaign will then target the top 50 nuisances in the target areas.

At the same time, other activities will also be carried out, such as litter clean-ups and taking positive and swift action to prevent and deal with anti-social behaviour.

The project is being supported by the Home Office's anti-social behaviour unit, which has already given its backing to the venture.

The campaign comes after an intensive consultation period with the public and the agencies involved in tackling nuisance activities.

It will be further backed up by a media campaign which is aimed at raising awareness of the existing problems.

Ian McLean, Together co- ordinator, said: "Anti-social behaviour encompasses a variety of unacceptable activities that can blight the quality of life for whole communities.

"Action to tackle nuisance activities is already ongoing in the district, but during our 100-day blitz we will be especially targeting the top 50 problems identified by both the public and the organisations involved in dealing with these issues.''