Police have issued a "frustrated plea" to quell a wave of anti-social behaviour in Pembroke Road, Melksham, and the surrounding areas.

Sgt Twyford, of Wiltshire Police, has taken to Facebook to issue a stern message to young people thought to be responsible.

He wrote: "Clearly, due to the ages of those involved; we cannot publicise the outcomes of any investigations, other than to say that we have laid charges where there has been evidence to attribute criminal behaviour to specific individuals.

"Those who legitimately need to know have already been informed of these outcomes, although they are also legally obliged not to discuss this.

"There has been a significant amount of action taken already, but it's a work in progress and will take some time to fully resolve.

"We are also aware of a recent post on a local page which has propagated some strong feelings toward the group in question.

"There has been a lot of discussion in the comments about what people feel that we should be doing, but only two members of that discussion have reported anything to us."

Sgt Twyford has urged witnesses to crimes to come forward and report the information to police.

In the last three months, Melksham Police received just 10 calls from the area; half of which were anonymous and only three involved a crime being committed.

It averages out to one crime per Month being reported to the force, set against the backdrop of 540 other Logs received for the wider Melksham area over the same time period.

Sgt Twyford adds: "To those of you who will say "but you're not interested anyway", we are. We are more than aware that the issue is much deeper than the 10 reported incidents, but we cannot work on rumour and hearsay; we need evidence. We need eyewitnesses who will put their name to statements; we need people who will support action against these group by placing a signature on their statement.

"We need CCTV and most importantly, names of those involved in each and every incident. Just because something wasn't proceedable last time, doesn't make it the case with subsequent incidents; every report is assessed on its own merits.

"You have a Neighbourhood Team made up of fellow members of your community, who live and work here, who want to resolve these issues and who want to offer a high quality service. We need people to come forward in a constructive manner though, in order to be most effective."