YOUNGSTERS with nowhere else to go are celebrating the opening of a new shelter and repaired football pitch in Coronation Park.

After residents complained about youngsters hanging around near Bridge Methodist Church, in Milltown Street, various community groups worked with the youths to discover what drove them to disturb residents and churchgoers.

The Radcliffe area tasking team was joined by BurySafe partners, local police, Bury Council's security service and the Youth Offending Team, in tackling the problem, which began in spring 2005.

Young people who had been excluded from the facilities at Bridge Methodist Church in Milltown Street because of their behaviour, started causing a nuisance by playing football and hanging around the car park next to the church.

The police and council's security services were frequently called out to attend to problems and as a result, Radcliffe area tasking team jointly funded the installation of CCTV cameras at the church and erected 'no ball games' signs.

Together they regularly patrolled the site to discourage young people from gathering and the Youth Offending Team worked to engage the young people and get their side of the story.

The youngsters told youth workers that they felt resentful of others from outside the area having access to facilities at the church when they had nowhere to go.

Those tackling the problem felt it was important not to merely banish the young people but provide them with an attractive alternative to playing football on the car park. There was a pitch nearby at Coronation Park but this was waterlogged and badly designed. The goalposts were located opposite an unprotected slope which the ball would continually roll down. The parks and countryside department paid around £6,000 to make improvements to the ball area on Coronation Park.

The park now boasts a new ball wall, youth shelter, perimeter fencing, pathways and reinforced goal mouth on the football pitch which has an all-weather surface to prevent waterlogging. The work, completed just before Christmas, has had very positive feedback from church users and local residents that the problem has effectively been resolved. Coun Tony Isherwood, executive member for safe and secure communities, said: "Our parks and countryside department noticed that muddy footprints appeared as soon as the work had been completed, showing just how extensively its being used. We are thrilled that partnership working has once again paid off. I would really like to say a huge well done to everyone involved."