WARDENS are to patrol city streets in a bid to stamp out yob rule in Southampton.

A new team of street wardens will walk around roads and estates across the city to help crack down on youths terrorising neighbourhoods.

It follows a series of revelations in the Daily Echo about stretched police being unable to deal with tearaways blighting residents' lives.

Today it emerged that a terror campaign by teenagers is keeping the elderly prisoners in their own homes in one part of the city.

Residents in a block of flats there are so desperate they want a military-style six feet fence built around their block of flats to protect them.

Brick, eggs, logs, apples and metal bars are just some of the things residents at Harefield say have been thrown at their windows and doors.

In the last two months eight windows and two doors have been smashed.

Now the residents have taken to pleading to the council to help after the police told them in a meeting that they don't have the resources to help.

Under a City Council scheme being floated this evening, street wardens will be able to keep a check on youngsters who have been given anti-social behaviour orders and curfew orders from the courts and make sure they are not breaking conditions.

The service would also aim to tackle environment-related crime including noise and smoke pollution, dog fouling, graffiti, dumping of rubbish, and abandoned cars.

Councillors will decide on whether or not to introduce the scheme, which aims to make Southampton a cleaner and safer place to live, at a Cabinet meeting in the city tonight.

It's hoped the street presence of the team of five wardens - who will be known as City Enforcement Officers - will reduce the fear of crime and the amount of vandalism.

If approved, the warden scheme, which will cover the entire city, from Bassett and Thornhill in the east to Redbridge and Millbrook in the west, could be in operation by January next year.

Areas that will be particularly targeted include troublesome estates and communities where the neighbourhood warden scheme - introduced in January this year -- is not in operation.

The team will all work flexible hours - including evenings and weekends - and will wear a dark blue uniform.

They will have the power to issue enforcement orders and on the spot fines to people for dog fouling and littering.

Cllr Richard Williams, city council Cabinet member for environment and transport, said: "There is a general concern over crime and antisocial behaviour and we want to stamp this out by pulling resources together."

At the public meeting of the Harefield Residents and Tenants Association, the first general meeting since the group was set up in June, angry elderly residents voiced their concerns to council officials and the police.

Margaret Roser, 64, who has been the victim of yob trouble at her flat in Exford Avenue, said people had given up calling the police.

She said: "Only last night my neighbour had a large metal bar shoved through his front door window.

"It has been going on for 17 years now but recently it has got much worse.

"We want a six feet metal fence put up around our block.

"We called the police when the incident happened and they didn't turn up."

But community beat Sergeant David Holt, from Bitterne Police Station, defended police actions, saying they were not aware how bad the problem was.

Sergeant Holt said: "Putting extra foot patrols there will only be a temporary measure because we cannot sustain it - we do not have the resources."

Southampton City Council Cabinet member for housing, Councillor Dennis Harryman acknowledged action was needed but said the council was powerless without names and addresses of yobs.

Anyone witnessing antisocial behaviour can contact the council on 0800 5191990