A FED-up resident is calling for more street lighting to help clean up a secluded alleyway plagued by late night anti-social behaviour.

Allan Taylor, 66, said the dark pathway leading from Hardy's Way to Castle Point Golf Course on Canvey Island, had become a popular late night hang out for youths downing booze and taking drugs.

He said: "You get a lot of kids gathering round there of an evening. Some of them drink beer and others are doing drugs. It seems to be one of the many places on the island they gather.

"When the drink takes effect it gets worse. You can hear them throwing cans and shouting all over the place.

"At midnight when everyone is going to bed the noise starts. Friday and Saturday nights give us more problems than the rest of the week."

Mr Taylor has already asked Castle Point Council to get the graffiti and litter-strewn alleyway closed off at night, but has been told by councillors this would be "unworkable".

The situation, he said, had been made worse by Essex County Council contractors moving a street light across the road away from the alleyway last year.

"If the alleyway was lit up, youngsters might not want to go down there. If they think people can see them, they might stop using it."

Councillors and residents living on the Winter Gardens estate began a campaign last month to close a maze of alleyways off Central Avenue, which have become a magnet for gangs of teenage revellers and drug-takers.

Neville Watson, Can-vey Independent Party councillor, said: "The alleyway definitely req-uires some additional lighting.

"They've made a little hideaway where there are crack pipes and there's graffiti down one side of a house backing onto the alleyway."

Norman Hume, cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: "Essex County Council has recently upgraded lighting units near to the alleyway to the rear of Hardy's Way with new white' lights which shine more brightly that the previous sodium vapour ones.

"This was in response to recent consultation over the alleyway. We are now in further consultation on this matter but would stress that anti-social behaviour is not an issue which can be solved by lighting alone."