A COMMUNITY which says it is being used as a dumping ground for criminals and drug addicts took to the streets in protest yesterday.

More than 100 people carrying banners lined King's Road in North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, to show their anger at a decision to move a youth off-ending team there.

Residents say their patience is at an end and are calling for the office, plus a needle exchange facility and police ID suite on the same road, to be moved to a non-residential area.

They also want to see the police station manned at all times.

Their campaign, aimed at Cleveland Police, Middlesbrough Council and Tees and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust, received the backing of passers-by and motorists, who sounded their horns in support of the protest. Dennis Taylor, the organisor of the protest, said the peaceful demonstration would be the first of many if nothing was done.

"The whole reason we are here is because we have got to stand up for honest people," he said.

Resident Frances Graham, 58, said: "We are marching for the simple reason that this is our community.

"We are law abiding citizens but every day of our lives we see the drug addicts come out of the clinic and go to the ID suite, where they get paid to be in a line-up. Then we watch them go and buy drugs in the back alleys."

Parents taking part in the march said they were afraid to let their children play outside. They fear the new office will mean juvenile delinquents from all over the town visiting North Ormesby.

Mother-of-three Liz Trainor, 33, said: "The youth offending facility is just going to cause more problems in North Ormesby and we already have enough."

Mark Farrell, 43, said: "North Ormesby has gone down the nick and everything bad is being dumped on us."

Police Inspector Steve Kielty said the ID suite would eventually move when a planned central police station was built in the town. But he said there were no plans to have the police station manned 24 hours a day.

A Middlesbrough council spokesman said residents were unduly alarmed about the new office, which houses staff from South Tees Youth Offending Team. "It has no beds and is mainly for administration," he said.

A Tees and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust spokeswoman said there were plans to relocate the needle exchange