SECURITY cameras could be installed at Knights Grange sports complex in a bid to foil vandals who blight the facility by abandoning and torching cars there.

Two more cars were abandoned and set alight during the past fortnight and the first incident, on Sunday, April 4, saw the culprits race a car across the fields and running track before leaving its burned-out shell there.

And during the Easter weekend vandals left a car outside the golf shop before setting it alight.

Sgt Gavin Day, of the Winsford community action team, said this week that officers were discussing installing CCTV with Vale Royal Borough Council.

The incidents come a month after police officers cracked a young gang of motorbike thieves who had caused havoc around the Grange Estate by riding stolen bikes across cricket pitches and golfing greens.

Clr Des Worthington, who represents Winsford's Verdin ward, said: "The first incident saw them going and doing wheelies on the football pitch at Knights Grange. It was the sixth time in the past three months and it needs addressing. It's crazy, it really is.

"They have run around the side of the running track and the fields around it as well. They did handbrake turns and skids. I don't know what the answer is with all this vandalism and if we do not go back to square one and introduce some discipline then who knows what will happen?"

But a spokesman for Cheshire Police said the root of the problem lay with councils not exercising their power to remove abandoned cars as soon as they were reported.

The spokesman said: "The police cannot do anything about the cars unless we can categorically prove that they were stolen.

"All we can do is put a notice on the vehicle and inform the council and wait for them to clear it.

"What we are saying is that if there is an area like Knights Grange which has been linked to burned-out car problems, perhaps the cars should be sorted out quicker - officers could be able to wait and watch the car for a few hours while the council comes to collect it."

Town councillor Peter Gannon said: "We'd like the police to take the same approach they did at the Liberal Club in Siddorn Street with anti-social behaviour there, where the situation has improved a lot.

"We're also appealing to people who see things like cars being burned out or raced there to get in touch with the police - write down what happens or take photos and pass them on if they can."