Housing bosses have ordered the demolition of garages taken over by gangs in Haywards Heath.

The move comes as police enforce a crackdown on under-age drivers and car wreckers causing havoc in the Bentswood Road, Wilmington Way and Penn Crescent areas.

In some cases, dumped cars have been set on fire in a row of garages behind homes in Penn Crescent.

The 22 garages were used by tenants of the New Downland Housing Association, which has an office in Haywards Heath.

But the site has been turned into a vehicle graveyard, with wrecked garages and the shells of abandoned cars.

Tenants, some of them elderly, who used to rent the garages have given them up in despair.

Police hope the demolition of the garages, which started yesterday, will help their efforts to bring peace to the area.

PC Graham Saunders, of Haywards Heath police, said of the housing association's move: "They have been very co-operative. We know that word is getting around about what we are doing."

The latest problems to surface have been in Wilmington Way, where two cars have been slightly damaged, possibly by stones being thrown.

But PC Saunders said: "That's another side issue. My main concern is joy-riding."

Officers have already reported a dozen youngsters for car offences, such as having no tax or insurance, after a blitz on vehicles. They have also contacted the DVLA, which is threatening to clamp, or even crush, vehicles found without tax discs.

Residents congratulated the police.

Housing association spokesman Terry Woolard said: "There is a general feeling in the local community that the best thing is for the garages to be knocked down. You have got a situation where local people have just given up.

"Once they are demolished, if they are just concreted over it might attract other problems. It needs another use, but we still haven't got around to that. We thought it important to deal with the existing garages first."