PEOPLE living in Blackwood say boy racers are back plaguing their town - despite a major police crackdown on the problem in the past year.

Those living in the north end of the town say there is constant noise coming from revving engines and blaring horns.

The usually quiet streets of Sunnybank Road, Pentwyn Avenue and Parklands are bearing the brunt of the problem, with gangs of car cruisers driving round in a ring formed by the roads.

Now residents want a dispersal notice to be re-introduced to stop the drivers. The order meant police could tell the drivers to leave and not return for 24 hours.

If they returned they faced arrest and the possibility of a prison sentence or fine of up to £5,000.

A three-month notice was put in place in the town centre last July, but later lifted. Residents say nothing else has worked.

Eve Chant, of Pentwyn Avenue, said: "It's absolutely disgusting.

"They are doing wheelie spins from 12.30 until 1.30 at night. When you've had a hard day you need a good night's sleep. Many of the elderly people around here are too afraid to go out.

"They used to go to the Miners Institute for a concert but now they are too afraid. Why should they be intimidated?"

Evelyn Bendall, who lives on the main road to Tredegar, added: "It's not as terrible as it used to be, but there is still a problem."

Blackwood councillor Kevin Etheridge said: "I have had three complaints about this in the last seven days. The dispersal notice should not have been taken off. Some of my residents are going through a living nightmare."Sergeant Lysha Thompson, from Blackwood Police, said: "There has been an increase in the number of complaints over the last two weeks.

"The dispersal notice was in place between July and September last year. In that time we went form 48 complaints in a month to zero.

"We couldn't justify keeping on longer than that. We are not allowed to keep a dispersal notice in place for more than six months anyway, but we are not ruling it out to deal with the new problems."