Children are to be banned from the streets to try to tackle the terror caused by hoodie gangs.

Parents across Whitehawk are being urged to ban youngsters from going out at night in one of the UK's first self-regulating curfews.

Police hope the initiative - which would be monitored solely by residents - could cut the number of young people causing trouble across the estate.

Children as young as four have been spotted roaming the streets in large numbers, shooting at buses and residents' homes with ball-bearing guns, which can be deadly at close range.

It follows a sharp rise in criminal damage on the estate, bucking the nine month decreasing trend for antisocial behaviour in the area.

There have been 32 incidents of damage in Whitehawk reported to police this month, compared to just 14 in December and 25 in November.

But some community leaders last night criticised the plans, saying some parents would not monitor their children's whereabouts.

And instead they demanded action by the police to cut crime on the estate.

East Brighton councillor Gill Mitchell said police should instead be focusing their resources on the youths that cause trouble.

She said: "If there has been an increase in this type of criminal activity then police need to better focus their resources on the minority group responsible."

Sussex Police has asked members of the Whitehawk Crime Prevention Forum - a group set up to - to back a campaign which encourages parents to keep their children off the streets at night.

Officers want the forum to set a time for youngsters to be indoors and will put up posters asking parents to comply.

Police will not be able to enforce the guidelines but they expect it to be self-policing, with parents knowing where their children are at all times.

Sergeant Paul Gossland, of Sussex Police, said: "I'm all for children being out and about because it is good for them to play.

"There is no legislation which says young children have to to be in at a certain time although there is guidance.

"We have suggested the Whitehawk Crime Prevention Forum gives some thought about sharing this guidance with parents.

"We are encouraging them to set an appropriate time for them to be indoors but it is not a curfew because this is not a police state.

"Criminal damage is on the increase and this is brought about primarily by young people.

"But we are not going to introduce a dispersal order because the vast majority of youngsters are well behaved."

Dispersal orders can be agreed between local councils and police and allow extra action to be taken to deal with yobs.

Officers can order groups of two or more people to move out of an area, ban troublemakers for up to 24 hours from places and take home anyone aged under 16 found out after 9pm and before 6am.

Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner said: "I fully support the idea of a curfew because it encourages old fashioned parental responsibility.

"I don't think a dispersal order is appropriate because they are only suitable for large and threatening groups."

Police announced plans for the curfew scheme as residents complained of hooded teenagers hurling stones and pointing BB guns at homes and buses.

Pensioner Doris Connaway, of Coolham Drive, Whitehawk, said she backed the campaign.

She said: "They keep shooting at my house but you cannot see who they are because they have their hoods up.

"On the corner where I live we get lots of children at about midnight and the noise is terrible.

"They are also kicking black recycle bins at cars which might be smashing them.

"I know they kick them up in the air because I have watched them but I cannot recognise them."

Another resident said children were firing BB guns and throwing stones at passing buses, almost injuring her elderly neighbour.

Police are concerned with the increasing criminal damage because latest figures represent the biggest monthly rise since last spring.

Officers say in the 14 weeks following the Whitehawk Clean Up last April, when officers worked with youngsters to tidy the estate, criminal damage dropped by 72 per cent.

Whitehawk Crime Prevention Forum committee member Maggie Smeeth, of Plainstow Close, said she was concerned about the use of BB guns but did not believe a self-regulating curfew will work.

She said: "I think it is going to be very hard to curfew kids.

"If it works then fair enough but I don't know how you are going to keep kids in at night.

"We have had a four year old out here at night with a group of kids with hoods on.

"I often see children running around the streets at night and I wonder what their parents are thinking."

Mrs Smeeth has been working with friends and neighbours to rid the estate of BB guns after armed youths injured her pet cat and shot a small child in the eye.

She said: "You cannot tell these BB guns from real guns and one day there is going to be a very serious casualty."