Give youths something to do, says fire-hit OAP

Jul 7 2009 By Russell Butt

The four fir trees and fence panels burned in what police have called a 'suspicious' fire

A GARDENING pensioner has blamed a lack of provision for youths after her back fence and hedge were burned in a suspicious fire.

Four fir trees and fence panels in the garden of Myra Prangley, 84, of Rowan Avenue, Egham Hythe, were set on fire on Sunday (July 5) evening around 8.45pm.

Although Surrey Fire & Rescue were unable to identify a definitive cause for the blaze, the passionate animal lover thinks youths who hang around in Hythe Park, which her garden backs on to, might be to blame.

She said: "I saw the smoke and thought some little beggers have set the grass on fire - it's full of slow worms. When I got about halfway down the garden the back hedge just went 'woof' and caught fire.

"It flared up and the flames were higher than the hedge. The smoke went everywhere. I was petrified - this blazing fire was going up, I thought the garage might catch light."

Luckily for Mrs Prangley, neighbours who had seen the smoke came to her aid, using water she had set aside for gardening to douse the flames and buckets of water from her garden pond.

Following residents' calls for action against anti-social behaviour in the park, Runnymede Neighbourhood Inspector, Roger Nield, announced last month plans to introduce a Section 30 dispersal order which would come into effect on August 1.

The order, part of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, allows officers to move on groups of two or more youths believed to have acted or believed might act in an anti-social way.

However Mrs Prangley who no longer takes notice of shouts and screams coming from the park at night, said she wasn't sure this would work.

She said: "I am angry that they picked on me, I don't do anything to anybody. I'm frustrated that the council have allowed this behaviour to go on here. The dispersal order might be a good thing but I would not like to think that children who are just talking innocently would get moved on too.

"They have one little place to kick a football around but that's all that is there. I think they need a youth centre or something here."

Mrs Prangley planted the fir trees when she moved into the house 30 years ago and although she can not replace them, she intends to get a new six-foot fence installed by claiming on her home insurance.