football and drink beers on, fed-up neighbours claim.

And Government is failing to do anything about it, the Devon Springs Lane residents say.

But the teenagers, wielding plastic toy guns, told The Royal Gazette last evening they were "nice guys just hanging out in our neighbourhood''.

"In every part of this Island there's a hang-out spot,'' one youth said.

"This is ours -- where else are we going to go?'' The group of teenagers, aged between 17 and 19 plus a few small children, "hang out'' on a wall opposite St. Brendan's main entrance and also on the front lawn of the psychiatric hospital.

Yesterday they were listening to music, chatting, roller-blading, riding bikes and "firing'' toy guns at each other. One was drinking a beer.

However, two women living in the area said their activities were a major menace to the neighbourhood as it got dark out.

They were being subjected to loud music and motorbike racing every night, they claimed.

They had also seen the youths vandalise St. Brendan's property by smashing windows and breaking down the door of the outpatient house.

Police and Devonshire South MPs the Hon. David Saul and Mr. John Barritt had failed to clear up the problem despite repeated calls, they both said.

The two women were also critical of St. Brendan's administration for failing to evict the kids from the property.

Dr. Saul and Mr. Simons did not return phone calls yesterday.

"What kind of Government do we have that puts a recreation centre for just this kind of group on the lowest rung of the budget -- or is the West End Correctional Facility the new rec centre?'' one of the women asked in a letter to The Royal Gazette yesterday.

The teenagers that gathered in the area called themselves the "Maintain Crew'', she wrote.

And they had "taken over the neighbourhood, blocking the streets, racing up and down on motorcycles and creating as much noise and general nuisance as they are able,'' she said.

The woman, who used a pen name, said she blamed the kids' parents, politicians and St. Brendan's director Mr. George Simons.

Mr. Simons had allowed the "crew'' to "maintain control of the neighbourhood'', she claimed.

"(Mr. Simons) simply spends more taxpayer's money to repair the broken doors and windows and clean up the (out patient's) house,'' she wrote, adding he refused to hire security to protect the grounds.

Dr. Saul and Mr. Barritt were ignoring the problem because it was not an election year, she said.

"Because they have already been elected and since this is a predominantly black area and the kids are not disturbing anyone important, the politicians answer to this situation is to advise us to `call the Police' and `they will come by to talk to the kids' -- something I have yet to see happen.

The youths claimed they were on good terms with the parish constable and Mr.

Simons, who allowed them use of a recreational building on the property twice a week.

Another resident, Mrs. Joan Daniels, said yesterday: "It's bad down their at night.

"They are playing football on the lawn there, drinking and smoking in the (outpatient's) house. It goes on all night -- until 1 a.m. sometimes.

"Even young girls go there. They are in school uniforms, sitting on St.

Brendan's lawn with a blanket like it's a beach.

"All the years that I've lived down here I did not dream I'd live to see the day when that road gets like that. When I call the Police, they come and drive off like they're scared of them. And I get no reply from Mr.

Simons.'' She added her MPs were "hopeless''.

"When I go and talk to them they don't pay me no mind,'' she said. She noted she had collected three bags of trash -- mostly beer bottles -- from St.

Brendan's front lawn this past weekend.

The youngsters annoyed St. Brendan's employees, she said, and very likely the patients as well.

The woman who wrote to The Royal Gazette concluded: "As a young black woman, It saddens me to see these youths wasting their time and alienating their older neighbours.''