CRIMINAL damage and unsocial behaviour in a quiet Tavistock street is making residents lives a misery, it was claimed this week.

The problems are occurring late at night in King Street, when drinkers turn to a pizza house for food in the early hours of the morning.

Jan Simpson of Tavistock and District Council for Voluntary Service said: 'We returned to work to find our plate glass window completely broken following a disturbance in the early hours of Saturday morning.

'Thankfully our landlords, West Devon Homes, boarded up the office immediately and we suffered no further loss, but local residents must have had a terrible time.'

Mrs Simpson said she thought the disturbance had carried on for several hours and said anti-social behaviour in the area was upsetting and unpleasant for anyone living in King Street.

She said: 'Many customers gather outside in the street. They seem to feel the need to smear the remains of their meal across windows in the vicinity and relieve themselves in the entrance way to King Street flats and our office doorway — surely more consideration should be shown to the older members of our community?'

Mrs Simpson said there were very few facilities for young people in Tavistock and she would not like to see the existing ones reduced but 'an inordinate amount of suffering' was being caused by the behaviour of some people.

Steve Phillip is housing director of West Devon Homes, which owns Pinder Court, a sheltered housing development in King Street.

Mr Phillip said West Devon Homes was aware that the late night behaviour of some people in King Street was 'a particular cause of concern'.

'We have received a number of complaints from residents that they are disturbed by noise and activity in the vicinity of King Street, late at night,' he said.

'Obviously as Pinder Court is a sheltered development, most of the residents are elderly and some can feel threatened.'

Mr Philip said the housing company has taken some 'limited security measures' to try and deter anti-social behaviour and was committed to finding a wider solution to the problem.

But he said there was little that the company could do by itself to influence the behaviour of people in the town centre, late at night.

Burcan Kussan of Tavy Pizza House said the business itself had suffered broken windows in the past and he would like to see an increased police presence in the area late at night.

Mr Kussan said: 'It's very difficult, I don't like serving drunk people but I do what I have to do, it's the nature of the job.'

And Mr Kussan said even if people were refused service, they would still wait around outside the building.

PC Martin King of Tavistock Police Station said the problems in King Street were caused by the 'typical drunken behaviour' .

PC King said: 'Tavy Pizza is the only eaterie open at that time of night and it's where they tend to congregate.

'We are monitoring the situation and are paying attention to the area — it's literally a question of patrolling around there as much as we can.'

PC King said PC Larry Base, Tavistock's community constable, has held a meeting with residents of Pinder Court and the owners of Tavy Pizza House following concern about late night disturbances in the area.

'Hopefully matters will be resolved or rectified,' said PC King.

West Devon environmental health officer Dave Banks said Tavy Pizza House had a late night refreshment house licence, enabling the business to stay open until 2am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Mr Banks said: 'There are a number of conditions attached to the licence and as I understand it, they are being complied with.

'Public order matters are an issue for the police — we have liaised with the police over this issue and if we receive any complaints, we will obviously investigate.'