A COUNCILLOR has vowed to help a grandmother who is too scared to leave her house because of hooligans.

Councillor Liz Fleming said she was appalled to hear of the plight of the 80-year-old grandmother of Dernby Close, Thornaby whose life has been made a misery.

The Independent councillor has promised to organise work to make the alleygates behind Derby Close vandal-proof and harder to climb over.

She also said she would arrange for bushes in front of Derby Close, which is a street of bungalows for elderly and disabled people, to be cut down to prevent any yobs from using them as a hiding place.

Last week The Northern Echo reported that the grandmother and mother-of-eight, who does not want to be named, had applied to Stockton Borough Council to move house.

She said hooligans ran on her roof, smashed bricks against her home and verbally abused her.

She said they have also set fires to fencing and piled rubbish against homes in the street.

Police have given ten youths who terrorise the area a final warning, and a 16-year-old was recently the subject of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order.

Housing officers at Stockton Council said they were investigating the case.