POLICE are targeting a group of troublemakers who are making residents' lives a misery.

Officers are looking to impose a dispersal order in parts of Pickering to put a stop to the behaviour of what they say is a hard core gang of 11 teenagers.

The orders give police the power to disperse groups of two or more people who are intimidating or harassing the public in certain streets.

It would be the first time that such an order has been made in Ryedale.

Sergeant Cliff Edens said that, individually, the youngsters stayed out of trouble, but collectively they were causing big problems.

"They have had many chances to reform themselves and they haven't," he said.

"We are looking at every option available to us, and a dispersal order is seen as a way of curtailing their behaviour.

"I have been talking to an officer who has imposed orders in Scarborough and they were very effective.

"There are 11 youths who we feel are coming to our notice too often, and they are starting to cause a lot of problems.

"Recently, there have been criminal issues that are being investigated."

Officers are now working with community safety partnership, Safer Ryedale.

Police arranged a meeting with the parents of the alleged problem youths. Only four turned up, but they did decide on a number of proposals.

These included imposing dispersal orders on parts of the town centre and making sure licensing laws are enforced.