A RIBBLETON pensioner is calling on the parents of young vandals to fork out for repairs to smashed windows and damaged property.

Eric Woodall, of Garsdale Road, on the Brookfield Estate, is calling for legislation to make parents pay for their children's crimes, hoping that it will put a stop to the damage.

Eric, who has lived on the council-owned estate for 27 years, said: "When I first moved here it wasn't so bad but these days children's behaviour is worse.

"I know it's difficult bringing up youngsters; I've brought up four myself. But children only do what their parents let them get away with and now it's intolerable.

"They'll play football even though there's a sign saying 'no ball games.' When I go out to tackle them they're cheeky, or just say 'I can't read'.

"They'll also enter properties, sometimes breaking windows first. They have no regard for the people who live there whether they are elderly or not.

"Sometimes I see six or seven kids climbing on the wooden cross outside the Church of the Ascension, in Watling Street Road. I told them to get off and got verbal abuse.

"Police say they can't do anything because the children are underage and can't be prosecuted. "If that's the case then parents should be made to pay for repairs."

A police spokesperson said: "Measures such as the anti-social behaviour and local child curfews can be pursued through the courts. Child curfews are general to areas, rather than specific individuals, and are local authority-led for children under the age of ten.

"There are also pilot Youth Offending Teams looking at reducing youth crime across the country and pilot Parenting Orders which if successful, will be introduced nationwide next year."

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