A SOUTH Oxhey resident has urged Three Rivers Council and Hertfordshire County Council, to put pressure on a housing company to demolish an old community centre following claims that children are torching the building and its nearby trees.

Mr Keith Pritchard, a resident of St Annes Close, South Oxhey, said children and teenagers were continuing to run riot in the former Chilwell Gardens Community Centre, and "the site owners were refusing to press charges because the building was going to be demolished to make way for houses."

He said neighbours were concerned about the welfare of the children and their own property but were too afraid to call the police. He said on Friday, August 31, at about 11.45am, police were called to Chilwell Gardens Community Centre, South Oxhey, after calls were made about the noise and spate of recent fires.

Since then, the children had frequently visited the site and used it as their playground.

He said: "They smashed all the windows of the old centre which should have been boarded up, I came out my neigbours came out."

Mr Pritchard said the police had been called to the scene many times, he said: "I asked [the police officers] what was happening and they said the owners of the building will not press charges because the building is going to be demolished."