Curfews could be considered to prevent youths causing a nuisance at night in Laindon.

Police say there has been a noticeable increase in youth nuisance and damage to the Laindon Centre in recent weeks.

More uniformed officers are patrolling the shopping centre in the evenings as youngsters come out of school, to deter them from shop-lifting or causing trouble.

Groups of teenagers aged between 14 and 17 are also coming back and congregating in the dark shadows of the shopping centre late at night.

Inspector Graham Carey, of Laindon police, discussed the problem at a west Basildon area committee meeting last night.

He said: "We do supply officers as much as we can but we cannot patrol the centre 24 hours a day.

"There is an infrastructure problem there, in that the centre is dark and has no closed circuit television cameras."

He said some of the youths had previously hung about on building sites, much to his concern, but were now congregating in the shopping centre as most of the developments are now nearly finished in Laindon.

Owners of the Laindon centre have been criticised by the public and shopkeepers alike for not investing in the shops.

Several Laindon councillors said they were worried people might be put off going to the centre at night and using the off-licence, fish and chip shop and Indian restaurant which are all open in the evening.

Mr Carey said the problem must be brought into perspective as most of the young people were not doing anything illegal.

The worst crime committed by young people hanging about in the shopping centre, he said, was removing a piece of wood from a boarded-up shop and using it as a skate-board ramp.

Councillors asked whether curfews had been considered by the police. Inspector Carey said: "There has not been one curfew order taken out in this area yet.

"It's a tool to be used which hasn't been used yet. This isn't just due to the police's resources but other agencies, who would also need to be involved in the process."

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