A GUARD was sent to protect a new gate from angry residents, who say it is worse than the nuisance bikers it was built to keep out.

A £1,000 kissing gate was first installed a month ago in Dyke Crescent, Canvey, with funding from a neighbourhood forum, in an effort to keep scramblers away from nearby parkland.

But others who could no longer get bicycles and wheelchairs through the narrow entrance, to use a public footpath, tore it out before the cement had the chance to dry around its posts.

This week, a Castle Point Council employee had to be stationed to watch over the replacement gate to prevent a similar thing happening.

One irate mother, who claims the solution to the biker problem is causing more hassle for residents than the motorcyclists, said her son now had to ride through a nearby housing estate where he had been the victim of bullies.

Zoe Cartwright, whose 14-year-old son, Jack, attends the Cornelius Vermuyden School, said even overweight people who used the path to reach a supermarket also faced a long detour because the gate was so narrow.

She said: "I know of one woman who was forced to leave her mother in a wheelchair by the gate because she had to pick her child up from school. It had been put in without any warning and she didn't know she wouldn't be able to get through.

"Jack now has a much longer journey in an area where he has experienced problems and I don't like him going that way."

Mrs Cartwright, of Limburg Road, Canvey, said she did not think the gate was stopping the nuisance bikers.

She said: "They just put planks down and cross the dyke. The only people it stops are ordinary residents and we are all pretty irate.

"I was about to pull this one up myself, but was stopped by the council guard posted there."

Ray Howard, county and borough councillor for Canvey West, who helped secure the funding for the gate from the Pitsea Cleanaway Trust, said: "Residents around the Dutch Village area have had terrible problems with bikers and something had to be done. The work was agreed at the neighbourhood forum and the rest of the funding came from the forum budget.

"I am afraid it is a case of being damned if you do and damned if you don't, but I am happy to meet with residents about this problem to see if it can be rectified."