Residents angered by troublesome youths have been told calling out police may not be the best solution.

The comments came as householders in Great Notley Garden Village said they feared vandalism and crime from youths hanging around the community centre.

But Insp Peter Sheldrake told a Braintree Police community consultative group meeting at the village hall on Thursday night that police were not the answer.

"If they are causing trouble we will come out, but that isn't always the best way to deal with it. Most of the time it's because they've got nothing to do.

"I'm looking at other ways of dealing with the problem that do not mean sending a police officer out."

He was backed up by Sgt Michael Couldridge, of D-shift, who patrols Great Notley.

He said: "Very often we come out and talk to them and they are all right about it. But if we move them on they will just go and do the same thing somewhere else."

Insp Sheldrake said a more permanent measure was to get them off the streets and doing something they wanted to do.

He suggested the new cyber-cafe opening in Braintree might work for a lot of teenagers.

"It's got to be topical with them," he said.

"The problem with a lot of these projects is the teenagers say what they want.

"But by the time it's got through committees and planning it's three or four years down the line, and the kids who wanted it have grown up and got jobs, and you are stuck with a new group of young people who want something completely different."

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