It was revealed at the town meeting on Monday 15, that anti-social behaviour and vandalism is becoming an issue for the residents of Cranbrook.

Councillor Kevin Blakey said that youth provision in the town currently isn’t working and action needs to be taken. He said: “We have had endless complaints from residents on for vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

“Bad behaviour seems to be escalating and we can’t sit on our hands a decision has to be made. It is becoming a focal point for some young people to misbehave and vandalising property as well.

It is not a massive rise but what has given us more concerns of anti-social behaviour was an incident where the railings by the primary school were damaged and a number of residents are rightly upset about it.

“What residents seem to be saying is that the behaviour seems to be worse on the youth bus days, which falls on Monday’s and Thursday’s.

“In the overall scheme of things it’s not a vast issue, it is not acceptable to anyone, especially the residents.”

The council made a proposal at the meeting to work with Devon Youth Services to further discuss how they can address the anti-social behaviour in Cranbrook.

“We did discuss as a council whether to suspend the youth bus, however we agreed that we are going to work with Devon Youth Services to try and find a solution of how we can make this work.

“What is going on at the moment is just not working and it is causing a lot of disruption to the town, and a lot of kids aren’t going because of fear of being bullied.

“We can’t be seen to close services for children when there is not enough as there is.

“We want to try to work more positively and look for more activities for younger people in Cranbrook.

“We need to recognise that there is an issue and we need look at how youth changes can be made in the town.

“As a council we want to be engaging in a lot of the youth, not just a handful of them.”

A spokesman from the Town Council said: “The County Council provides a mobile youth service (youth bus) to younger people in the area.

“It engages with about 70 young people with an average 15 to 20 people attending each of the two sessions each week.

“It’s an opportunity for young people to talk to trained youth workers for advice or assistance about things concerning them. It also gives the young people opportunity to get together to take part in activities. Each session runs for about 2.5 hours.

“The County Council is currently reviewing provision of the service in Cranbrook, with the Town Council and East Devon District Council, to look at what the service currently offers young people, what the community’s need for the service are, and where the best location for it might be.

“There is no evidence to support the notion that the act of vandalism which occurred on Thursday was connected to the provision of the youth bus on the same day.”