A FRUSTRATED resident is angry with Castle Point Council for not supporting his battle with antisocial behaviour.

Steven Cole, Neighbourhood Watch coordinator for Canvey, was left seething when the authority refused to pay £360 for ten metal warning signs.

The new signs were planned for streets in the Winter Gardens and Canvey West wards of the island, and include First Avenue, Second Avenue and Thorney Bay Road.

Mr Cole said the signs would make a real difference to residents living in the area, who suffer from groups of youths vandalising property, taking drugs and intimidating passers by.

He said: “It’s a real shame. Once they go up, the children will look at them and think ‘there is someone on the lookout here, we’ll go somewhere else’.

“I wanted to put them up in the streets where there are real problems.

“These are places where you regularly find needles lying around, broken glass, groups of kids hanging out effing and blinding.”

A resident in Second Avenue, who did not want to be named, said groups of youths were causing a big problem in her street.

She said: “They generally just hang around and make themselves a nuisance.

“Some of them are as old as 19 and 20, you’d think they’d have better things to do with their time.

“I know some neighbours have actually moved away because of the hassle.”

Mr Cole initially asked the council to fund the signs at the Canvey West Neighbourhood Meeting in February.

At the group’s next meeting, on Wednesday night, he was told only the police could fund the Neighbourhood Watch.

Mr Cole is now looking for alternative sources of funding to pay for the signs, including the police-funded Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and the National Lottery.

He said: “It’s frustrating to have to wait so long for an answer.

“I think it will be at least six months until I can get those signs up.”

A council spokeswoman said: “There is an established mechanism for funding and it is not through the council.”