Community leaders in St. George's are to open talks with the Old Town's youth in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the acts of vandalism that have marred the area in past days.

Mayor Henry Hayward said a meeting between Police and the St. George's Public Safety Committee had highlighted a need for dialogue with the alleged vandals.

Now, the committee hopes to get young people along to one of its meetings in the New Year.

The move follows two different incidents of malicious damage inflicted on St. George's during the last week.

About 150 Christmas light bulbs were smashed in the Town Square during the early hours of last Thursday morning - the day before the town's annual Christmas walkabout.

And between 3 a.m. and 4. 30 a.m. on Monday, vandals scrawled unsightly graffiti across a number of buildings around the centre, including on a temporary staging area.

As a result, community leaders called for local people to offer information, and said Policing in the town needed to be stepped up.

"We are going to continue meetings with the Police, and try to, as well, have a meeting with these individuals, because we are pretty sure who they are," said Mr. Hayward.

"The Police have ideas about who they think is causing the problem. It's a sad situation that they want attention and this is how they are going about it.

"But various suggestions came up last night about developing a dialogue with them, and that's going to be our objective."

Mr. Hayward said he believed the vandalism culprits were aged between 17 and 20, but said the group they hung around with were aged between 13 and 22.

And he said members of the public safety committee did not think anything would be achieved if they took a confrontational stand, so wished to work with the young people, instead.

He added that the group had talked to some of the young people's parents, and they, too, felt bad about the situation.

"I think it's a case where they have no control of the individuals," he said. "We have approached them, but it's obvious they don't have control. I think they personally feel bad about it, and they are are in a similar situation that the town's in, in that they can't control them."

Mr. Hayward said the community realised they could not have Police cover in the Market Square 24 hours a day, but wished to see resources increased, and hoped for an assurance that the town would retain a 24-hour Police station once the East End division is moved to Southside.

Corporation of St. George's town manager Lance Furbert said he found the meeting on Monday night a great benefit, and said he believed there was now greater understanding between the Police and the community.

He added: "We do want to have a meeting with the young people of St. George's but there is so much going on now, we won't do it before the New Year. Hopefully, that will be helpful, though.

"But since the vandalism, particularly the graffiti, I have had a lot of people stop me in the street and actually come to the office to say how distressed they were by it all. Quite a number of people said they would be willing to help. I'm not really surprised when St. George people come together, but today, it's been an extraordinary amount of people."

Police refused to comment further on the incidents or the meeting yesterday.