Claims that Police regularly visit Ord Road have drawn a sharp response from Richard Powell who lives and works in the trouble-hit area where youths run rampant.

He hit back at comments in yesterday?s by Community Beat Office boss Chief Inspector Michael DeSilva about daily visits from the Police Support Unit to the Warwick hot spot.

He said: ?They must come at two or three o?clock in the morning because they are not there when the problem is there.?

Commuters trying to get home had to wait for street football games to get finished before they could drive past said Mr. Powell ? or else they would risk abuse and having stuff thrown at them.

He said youths had painted gang markings ORC (standing for Ord Road Crew) on his property but Police had simply told him to repaint.

The youngsters litter his premises with liquor debris and urinate in the parking lot said Mr. Powell who said Police response times were too slow ? if they bothered coming at all.

?It?s 40 minutes before they show up. I can drive to town from Ord Road in ten minutes, why does it take them this long??

Mr. Powell said Operation Cleansweep ? the anti-drug drive of 1997 ? had helped solved the problem but lack of Police action in recent years had handed the area back to the youngsters.

?This is there territory, they own it they do what they want. We have a proliferation of youngsters but police are not dealing with it.?

He said he had placed around 40 phone calls to Police who knew his voice so well that they didn?t need to ask for his address.

When Police do come they came on their own and found themselves outnumbered, said Mr. Powell.

?They sent one cop down but there were ten guys. He said ?Do you want me to get out of the car??. I said no ? he was going to get beat up.?