AFTER reports of continuing disturbances caused by large gangs of youths in the streets of Looe, the town council have made the decision to employ an extra police presence.

At their meeting on Monday, at which the possible installing of CCTV security cameras was also discussed, councillors condemned the troublemakers, and raised concerns that there were not enough police in the town to deal with the disturbances.

Don Webb reported he had called the police at 10.30pm on Friday night when he witnessed about 40 youths in the main street, some of them jumping on a car roof and intimidating the driver. 'The police came at 12.30am, it was too late' he said. Frances Kenshole said a similar thing had happened the Friday before, and no one arrived after the police were called. 'We have to do deal with these youngsters' she said, 'it's about time they found something else to do'.

Former mayor Dave Bryan said he felt the reputation of Looe had gone down dramatically. 'People feel threatened and intimidated in our streets' he said.

Councillors have been mooting over the idea of 'buying in' an extra policeman at weekends to patrol the streets between May and September for many months, but it was Jimmy Dingle who brought matters to a head at the meeting. He demanded to know how much the council had in reserves, and when told it was about £28,000, said some of it would be better spent on making the town safer and better for locals and visitors. 'We have complained and done nothing for long enough' he said.

After much discussion, 11 councillors voted for, with one abstention, to set aside up to £10,000 from the reserve to buy the services of an extra constable. There was an amendment that talks should continue with the police over the staffing levels within the town.

The mayor announced he had received a quotation based on 10 CCTV cameras for Looe at £1,500 each, but on top of that there would be an annual running expenditure of about £80,000. 'We simply can't afford it' he said.

However, councillors felt CCTV was now the way forward, and the mayor has been asked to enquire how much it would cost for a smaller number of cameras. Mally Toms, also a harbour commissioner, said the harbour was already looking into supplying its own equipment, which would mean at least three less cameras for the council to be concerned about.