PARISH councillors have hit back after youngsters claimed that they are being pushed out of the community.

Julia Langley, chairman of Wooburn Parish Council, expressed her distress that youngsters felt they were being excluded from Bourne End.

Youngsters had a meeting two weeks ago to air their views about proposals to tackle the problems of vandalism and litter at Wakeman Road, Bourne End.

They discussed their views with youth workers and area patrol constable Barry Feltwell, but said the measures would alienate them and only move the problems elsewhere.

Cllr Langley said at a finance and general purposes committee on Tuesday: "We are not excluding them from the village. That is one thing we didn't want to do.

"The meeting outlined things that would hopefully improve the area and we should have been asked to this meeting."

Wooburn Parish Council has budgeted £10,000 for improvements to the village trouble spot.

Councillors, police and local businesses last month discussed long and short-term objectives to tackle the problems of vandalism and litter in Wakeman Road.

These included construction of more modern toilets, the resiting of the recycling bins, the construction of a youth shelter and the installation of modest CCTV.

However, youngsters say they would prefer a youth club rather than a shelter.

Cllr Langley (Con, Flackwell Heath) hit back saying this was not what they asked for originally.

She said: "They didn't want the shelter in Blind Lane but to have one in Wakeman Road. They seem to have done a U-turn."

Cllr Langley added that she was angry that representatives of the parish council were not invited to the youth meeting.

Parish councillor David Paul added: "We could argue we are the ones being excluded."

Organisers of the meeting were unavailable for comment.

The next meeting to discuss problems at Wakeman Road has been planned for June 19.