GREENOCK'S leafy west end and Gourock have become havens for under-age drinkers because the streets are safer.

Police had to disperse a 50-strong teenage gang in Battery Park on Saturday night.

A total of six police officers were dispatched to send the youngsters home.

Some girls as young as 13 are travelling eight miles from the top of Port Glasgow to meet up with other teenagers from Larkfield at the west-end rendezvous.

Sergeant John O'Neill, of the community policing department, said: `Kids are arranging to meet up on the internet or mobile phones. Most of them are decent kids who say they have nowhere else to go and feel it's safer to hang about in the west end instead of where they live.` He added: `It is a worrying trend from the point of view that parents don't know what their kids are up to.

`If it was my 13-year-old daughter I would be annoyed that she was eight miles from home on a Saturday night.

`I would urge parents to be more vigilant and know where their children are.` But even more worrying is the fact some kids as young as 12 are drinking. Police seized Buckfast and vodka from the park and Cardwell Bay area.

Residents have also hit out out about kids, aged between 12 and 17 years, hanging about Caddlehill Street, Greenock. They were also out in force on Saturday.

Sergeant O'Neill stressed the youngsters aren't causing any trouble in the west end but the fact they're there at all is upsetting locals He added: `We had six police officers running after kids who shouldn't have been in Battery Park. We have more important things to do with our time.`