Police are being called most nights of the week to gangs of more than 30 youths causing destruction at Faversham Rec.

Mobs of teenagers are reportedly smoking cannabis, drinking under-age and smashing the bottles, vandalising the buildings, leaving laughing gas canisters strewn on the ground and pulling out plants and goal posts.

Members of the Faversham Rugby Club committee are even scared they may burn the clubhouse down as some are lighting fires underneath the arches.

They say the situation is getting “completely out of hand”.

In August, police said there had been an increase in antisocial behaviour at the park in Whitstable Road and handed PCs and PCSOs additional powers to help clamp down on ‘nuisance youths’.

"I don’t want to move but it is something I may consider if this continues. I feel intimidated every time I walk out my house." - Grandmother

But the dispersal order only lasted 48 hours.

Secretary of the rugby club Tracey Hamilton said this week: “It has been an issue for a long time but it is getting progressively worse.

“We feel it is getting completely out of hand.

“Not just at the club house, but across The Rec and it used to be just at the weekends but it is now most week evenings too.

“We have heard that drug dealers use the car park there and we heard one story about a teenager blowing cannabis smoke into the face of a PSCO.

“It can be a really intimidating place to be and we know a lot of people who won’t walk around there once it’s got dark.”

Police spokesman Carly Wymark said: “Police community support officers are aware of concerns of anti-social behaviour around Faversham recreation ground and will be targeting their patrols in the area to deter nuisance behaviour.

“Anyone with information about anti-social behaviour is asked to call police on 101.”

A grandmother who lives next to the park, but did not want to be named, said that yobs have kicked footballs at her front door even after being asked not to, and she has had cannabis smoke blown in her face.

She says she worries for her grandchildren and calls the police around five times a week.

She said: “It is making my life a misery. I don’t want to move but it is something I may consider if this continues.

“I feel intimidated every time I walk out my house. The council say the police are responsible and the police say the council are responsible – it’s a vicious circle.”

One of the most recent calls to police took place on Friday afternoon at around 3.22pm.

Officers were called to the park to a report of a group of young people causing a ‘nuisance’. They were given words of advice and told to leave.

Cllr Anita Walker (Con) had said back in August: “Years ago there were not the problems of youths drinking and littering because there was a park superintendent of sorts, but that post disappeared many, many years ago.

“The Rec is also the main pedestrian route from the town to the houses on the other side of the railway line and people should not feel intimidated to use this at night because of a few drunken youths.”