THE leader of Swindon Council says action must be taken to make sure we do not lose control of the streets.

Coun Roderick Bluh's comments come after residents in Walcot organised a rally to show they have had enough of crime.

Coun Bluh said: "I will be at the rally. I am concerned that we take action to make sure we never lose control of any areas and we do need to start taking action straight away.

"We need to start moving away from talking about anti-social behaviour because a lot of these things are downright criminality.

"We have got to be robust and take control of the streets and send the message out that we are not going to tolerate this.

"This isn't just an issue for politicians and government - it's an issue for communities.

"We have all got a role to play here in making sure we don't have unacceptable behaviour in our communities."

Residents, along with Coun Mavis Childs, have organised the demonstration in Buckhurst Field, Walcot, from 2pm until 3pm on September 22, as their way of saying "enough is enough".

Organiser and grandmother Caroline Dollery said: "We are talking about anti-social behaviour, knives, drugs and whatever. If we don't stop it now it's going to get worse.

"There's a lot of support for this. The aim is to stop all this trouble. This is our way of saying enough is enough'."

Mrs Dollery, 62, of Rogers Close, says people in Walcot are fed up with anti-social behaviour in the area. She says her fence was set on fire recently and her neighbour's door was kicked in.

"If you say anything to these kids you get a load of abuse and if you say anything to the parents you get even more abuse," she said.

"Until we start standing up and shouting that we are not going to take it anymore, nothing will change."

Coun Childs (Con, Walcot), said: "We have seen what has happened elsewhere in the country, with Rhys Jones in Liverpool, and the community need to see that next time it could be their son or daughter.

"We have got to show people we don't want that and we have got to do something about it. People are fed up and don't know what to do "We are not just doing this for Walcot. It's for all communities in Swindon and we are hoping to see this sort of thing in Penhill and Pinehurst.

"It's about the public voice being listened to and hopefully it will be listened to before anyone else gets hurt."

Supt Kevin Maidment said: "Clearly there are areas where young people congregate and often there's a perception that where young people congregate it's indicative of criminal behaviour.

"I wouldn't be as complacent to say that doesn't happen.

"But what we are trying to do is put strategies in place with our partner agencies in order to provide an appropriate level of policing or the involvement of other partners, such as Neighbourhood Safety Teams or wardens and so on."