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Young people congregating around the Aeroplane Park play area on the Chalkstone estate in Haverhill have become such a problem the play equipment may have to be removed.

Haverhill's Safer Neighbourhood Team has made the area a priority for action more than once in the past and, although incidents have died down during times of high-profile policing there, they seem to return each time.

The play area is so called because one of the climbing frames is in the shape of an aeroplane, and it is well used by toddlers and young children during the daytime, the SNT's meeting heard this afternoon.

But in the evenings groups of young people gather in the area as it is possible to keep hidden by nearby trees.

PC Michael Potter said there had been complaints again, and when police followed these up with visits to local residents they were told of a level of dissatisfaction with the policing of the area.

"I think we have to take more drastic action than we have up to now." he told the meeting. "Whether that is architectural changes, like fencing which would be warden controlled, lighting, or removing it altogether."

Local residents are to be surveyed by St Edmundsbury Borough Council, which is responsible for the green space and the play area, to find out if it should be retained.

Haverhill Town Council clerk said the survey should be the first action because it would reveal who used the play area and whether it provided what people wanted.

Further action could then be considered including removing it.

PC Potter said there had not been enough complaints to justify a dispersal order such as had been used at the Tractor Park, a similar play area in Arrendene Road.

The meeting heard the park was used in the daytime by families from some distance away, although the survey will be confined to more immediate neighbours.

Anyone from further away wishing to contribute will be able to find the survey on St Edmundsbury Council's website, once it has been distributed, and can make comments on it on there.