Fears about the rise in crime following the closure of Witham's cyber cafe have been realised.

At a meeting of Witham Town Council's community services committee last night, Sgt David Bauckley, of Witham police, revealed an increase in calls to the Humber Road area, where the cafe was situated.

He said from July to December, police received about 20 calls to the area but a lot of those were not problems with youths.

Since the cafe in Spa Road closed in January, police have already received nine calls, eight of which were nuisance-related.

Sgt Bauckley said: "We have to come up with something quickly. The youths were effectively using the cyber cafe as a drop-in centre and if the council ran something similar that would solve the problem."

After the cyber cafe opened in June there was a marked decrease in youth crime in the area and plans to install security cameras nearby were put on hold.

It was open for six months before it was forced to close due to lack of trade.

In an effort to keep the cafe afloat Witham Town Council, Braintree Council and Essex Training and Enterprise Council bought internet time for young people to use in the cafe.

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