The children that gather outside my house.

Every day, starting from very early in the morning children aged about 8-14 gather around my house. It's at the end of the street and next to it is a public footpath. It is here that kids sit on my wall. I don't mind this. It is only when they are there until late at night, after midnight for the older ones, and they are swearing, shouting, banging on my door and running away and dropping litter on my driveway.

At the bottom of my street, in-between my house and the one facing it on the other side of the road is a large tree with some bushes around it. This used to be very beautiful and people used to walk through it to get to the public footpath, which runs alongside my house. Recently a considerable number of children have been climbing the tree, which is now almost dead, tying rope swings to it and, this is the worst, spitting and shouting obscenities at people walking past. At the top of this tree it is possible to see right into the second floor of my house. I'm sure this is true for the house on the other side but they haven't said anything for fear of what the children may do. I know for a fact that everybody I know in the street does not want these children there. I know because I've talked to them about it. One neighbour, I will not give names, asked the local council to cut down the tree. Once the children heard about this things go worse and they started singing "Don't cut down our tree" repeatedly for many hours a day.

I created this page in the vain hope that some of these children's parents will read it and consider learning how to bring up their children.

I have decided to keep a diary of their activities.

Saturday 14 August 1999:

On arriving at my house I was insulted several times as I went to open my door. I turned to the children in the tree and asked them to come down and say those things to my face, They refused. Only a few minutes later there was a knock at my door when I went to answer it one of the girls from the tree earlier ran away laughing, once again I will not mention names. This continued for about 15 minutes. I left the house and went to the girl's house to speak to her parents. They were not home so I spoke to her sister. Nothing has been done. The children continued to sit on my wall and shout obscenities for most of the day.

Sunday 15 August 1999

As I write it is 9:17pm. The usual gang have gathered at the tree. They are making loud siren-like noises. They are swearing at each other and some appear to be fighting. Just now one of the children has knocked on my door and asked if my brother, whom they know is on holiday, is coming out. This has happened before, I believe they get some kind of perverse pleasure out of it. Once again a child has knocked on my door and run away. I took my phone outside and asked if any of them would like to talk to the police and tell them what they are doing. They all denied doing anything. It is now 9:25pm The children's parents obviously do not care about them or they would have been indoors much earlier.

16 August 1999

Same insult shouting from early in the morning. At about 11:30pm I was trying to hold a telephone conversation when I heard loud banging noises. They were outside throwing stones at my house. This went on until after midnight. When they had gone, I had had no sleep, I went outside to check the damage.

• The paint on my front door had been chipped.
• There were clear marks on my garage door made by stones.
• Litter had been thrown all over my garden.

17 August 1999

Starting from about 9:25am the children were shouting and swearing at each other in the tree outside my house. (Note: The council still has not made any attempt to remove it).