Gangs of teenage vandals are running riot & have turned our picturesque town into a yobs’ playground

IT’S one of the UK’s oldest boroughs, but Barnstaple is being plagued by a new wave of crime and antisocial behaviour driven by teenage yobs who are “out of control”. Residents in the picturesque riverside town in North Devon are bracing themselves for the upcoming Easter holidays, fearing these destructive schoolboys and girls will run riot through the High Street and harass local traders. When The Sun visited this week, distressed locals told how vandalism, brazen drug-dealing and using on the streets and a homeless community taunted by abusive youths are among the list of woes they regularly endure. In the local park, where street-sleepers have pitched tents in the bushes, a man complained he’d recently had his slashed by a heartless lout. One shop-owner, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, told how their store windows have been smashed frequently. “There’s a huge problem with anti-social behaviour in Barnstaple, it’s gone right downhill in the past couple