FAMILIES plagued by youths gathering in their housing estate in London’s East End have persuaded their landlords to put up a security fence and entry system to keep yobs out. The families at Bethnal Green’s Minerva Estate complained to about stairwells being used as a gathering point

By Mike Brooke

FAMILIES plagued by youths gathering in their housing estate in London's East End have persuaded their landlords to put up a security fence and entry system to keep yobs out.

The 60 families at Lysander House on Bethnal Green's Minerva Estate, off Hackney Road, complained to Tower Hamlets Community Housing about stairwells being used by teenagers each evening as a gathering point.

Now housing bosses have spent �240,000 on revamping the area including the fence and a two-stage door entry system.

"It's been a nuisance for several years with youths gathering in the open entrance," the housing organisation's Communications manager Andy Coleborn told the East London Advertiser today.

"We've been sorting out security in other parts of the estate, which means the youths moved on to areas not yet secure. Lysander House was the last block to be made secure."

The families in the six-storey block complained to the Bethnal Green area residents' board to get something done.

The work also includes 'step free' access to all ground-floor maisonettes, landscaping outside and installing an underground refuse system to hide unsightly bins and get rid of overflowing rubbish.