CCTV will be put up to drive out antisocial behaviour from an area of Westcliff dubbed, “The Wild Westborough”.

A mobile camera will be set up in Fairfax Drive, Westcliff, for two months so police can keep an eye on troublemakers using the street as a playground for drink, fights, and unruly behaviour.

The road is one of 15 across the boroughwhere police will be upping patrols to cut down on crime over the summer.

David Glover, who lives on Fairfax Drive and is also a member of the Residents’ Association for Westborough (RAW), is pleased to see action being taken.

He said: “It’s awful down here.

Relentless is the best word to describe it.

“I have lived here for 28 years and there have always been problems.

“A boy has defecated in my garden, someone threatened to set my fence on fire and there is often drug dealing down the Prittlebrook path behind our properties.

“There is also rubbish dumped all the time. Someone put a sofa and chairs outside my property once. My garden was broken into last year and someone dumped a load of builders rubbish and car parts in there. There is perpetual low and medium level vandalism and antisocial behaviour.

“I call it the wild Westborough as nobody seems to care and people get away with what they do. It’s like living in a cowboy town. Hopefully cameras will work.”

The exact location of the camera has not yet been decided.

Southend Police’s district commander, chief inspector Simon Anslow, said: “This is an area we get quite a lot of calls from and we know the public are very concerned about it.

“The main calls we get for that area are about antisocial behaviour and concern for safety such as missing people.

“It’s quite a long street but we know there are bits of it that are more likely to have issues than others.”

He added: “We put cameras up in St George’s Avenue in response to concerns about drug use. Since the cameras went up the feedback has been that the drug use has reduced, so they do have a positive impact on the local area.

“Drug use is a neighbourhood priority for that area and this shows we are tackling it.”

The mobile camera will be provided by Southend Council.

A RESIDENT who has campaigned for cameras in the area is hopeful the CCTV will help reduce antisocial behaviour in Fairfax Drive this summer.

Brenda Smith, chairman of the Residents’ Association of Westborough, who lives in Hildaville Drive, Westcliff, said: “I have been asking the police for mobile cameras to be put up so they can check those certain hotspots where people are constantly dumping rubbish. If there was a camera they would catch people.

“I also know young people congregate in the park to drink alcohol.

“Hopefully it will work. Fairfax Drive was where a young man was stabbed last year. It was a horrible feeling for that to happen so close to where you live.

“What they are doing is very positive, hopefully it will make people think twice about their antisocial behaviour.”