A mother who complained about the behaviour of youths who congregate in a Helston alleyway and "a lack of policing" has prompted action by town councillors.

Brenda Rojano, who lives in a flat above the Peacocks store in Coinagehall Street, told the Packet: "It just makes my life a misery and those of the people around me. I've got a dog and I have to walk him, but I can't take him out when they're there."

Mrs Rojano, who has a grown-up daughter, said that on one occasion she had seen a group of youths carrying a large cardboard box towards the public car park next to the post office depot. The box had "charity shop" written on the side and contained a large number of glass tumblers and other items made from glass.

"Whether somebody had dropped it off at a charity shop and they had taken it, I don't know," she said.

She continued that she also heard one youth mention that someone in the group was carrying a knife. The youths then proceeded to take the box into the car park and smash the items, shattering shards of glass around.

Mrs Rojano claimed that when she contacted the police to explain what had happened, she was told that as it was a privately owned car park - and therefore classed as private land - there was nothing they could do. "I felt absolutely gutted," she said.

On another occasion, Mrs Rojano said that she had gone out to her car one evening, at around 9pm, only to find a teenage girl squatting on the ground and urinating next to it. "I couldn't believe it," she added.

The state of the alleyway leading to the car park was also causing problems, she added, with a number of people having tripped and fallen there. One time she had stepped out of her flat to find an elderly woman sitting on her doorstep, in shock, after falling on the uneven surface. It later transpired that the pensioner had broken her arm in three places and needed corrective surgery using metal pins.

Mrs Rojano raised all these concerns at last Thursday's meeting of Helston town council. In addition, she told members how youths were regularly drinking alcohol in the alleyway, despite it being an alcohol free zone, and had been at the time the glass was being smashed.

"Why are they allowed to drink alcohol and put lives at risk?" she said.

Councillor Paul Phillips said that he and town clerk Chris Dawson had gone to "considerable efforts" to find out who owned the alleyway, even going so far as to contact the land registry office. "Apart from the first few feet, the rest of the alleyway is not registered and does not seem to have an owner," he explained.

Town clerk Mr Dawson said that he would write to Helston's police inspector Mark Eccles and see what progress had been made in terms of solving the problem.

Following the meeting Sergeant Mark Pascoe, of the neighbourhood beat team at Helston police station, told the Packet: "If there are incidents of people smashing glass in the car park I would expect an officer to go down and deal with that. It's a matter we would deal with."

He confirmed that the area was part of an alcohol free zone, which meant that people weren't allowed to drink in the street, and the police had powers to seize any alcohol from people.

Sergeant Pascoe added: "Anti-social behaviour is a local priority. It's something we discuss on a weekly basis. We are responding but we can't be there 24 hours a day. However we do pay attention to that area, along with a lot of other areas." He continued that he was aware of the area Mrs Rojano was referring to and that some people had been causing problems there, and stressed that officers were responding to that.

"We try to identify the people involved and we would take action against the people if they are causing anti-social behaviour problems or committing crime. I feel we are getting somewhere. We have identified some of the young people. There are people I would wish to identify and we have got a long way to go," he added.

Sergeant Pascoe concluded: "I would ask the parents to take some responsibility. We have seen young people as young as 13 and 14 who are drunk. Parents need to take responsibility."