School plea over 'awful' vandals

Police have increased patrols near a primary school in East Yorkshire after broken bottles, racist graffiti and a syringe were found in the grounds.

Security fencing has also been damaged and fires have been lit on the playing field at Stepney Primary School on Beverley Road in Hull.

Pupils have written to local residents, community groups and the police to ask them to keep an eye on the grounds.

Deputy head teacher Debbie Johnson said: "They want their field back."

Last month the school said it would not let children use the field until the problem was resolved.

'Dangerous rubbish'

Mrs Johnson said: "[The children] want to be able to use it safely, so we hope that people will help us by keeping an eye on what's going on by informing the police if they see youths on our field."

Mrs Johnson said the problem had started before the summer holiday.

She said: "It was absolutely awful. There was graffiti that had swear words and racist language on the shed.

"There were lots of areas on the field that had been set alight, where people had been having fires, so there was lots of rubbish.

"The rubbish was dangerous as well because it was things like broken beer bottles.

"Our caretaker found a syringe on there, there was also fencing that we had repaired at great expense to the school had been just ripped down in order to gain access to the field."

Sgt Aidie Marsden, from Humberside Police, said patrols in the area had been stepped up and he believed the situation was improving as a result.