Community leaders and police today pleaded with youths on Brighton's Whitehawk estate to put anger and distrust behind them.

The plea comes in the wake of the seven-week trial in which four people were convicted of offences for their role in an outbreak of violence in Whitehawk Way and Plaistow Close on April 28 last year.

A jury at Hove Crown Court cleared three people and three others changed their pleas to guilty during the trial.

Inspector Paul Smith, police commander for East Brighton, said officers had worked with agencies since the disturbance to build better relations on the estate.

He said the work of beat officers and initiatives such as the New Deal had been fundamental and this had generated a positive response among residents, including young people.

He said officers regularly visited youths at the Whitehawk Crew Club where police and club members got on well and discussed issues.

However, he admitted the police still had a long way to go to build trust and agreed the police were still sometimes viewed as a threat.

He said: "Where there have been problems in the past, we have to draw a line under that. We have to draw a line under the court case and move forward."

Brighton Kemp Town MP Des Turner said: "We should all put it in the past and people should be prepared to start again whichever side they are coming from.

"I think we need now to build up trust on both sides. You can't expect it to happen overnight. It comes stage by stage with good community policing and the help of the people who want good law enforcement. They want to feel safe but they want to see it's fair policing."

Eddie Cope, who sits on Whitehawk's community and crime prevention forums, believes the estate will improve its reputation through an eight-day festival planned for May.

He said: "We are trying to bring quite a few people who have been isolated back into the community.

"There are a lot of good people in Whitehawk. But it has had some bad publicity. Now we want to push that away. It's just like a normal estate anywhere in Great Britain with good and bad people.

"People need to try to understand the police and work with them. They have a hard job and, although there are good and bad in every job, the police we have got in this area are very good."

Geoffrey Theobald, opposition Tory leader on Brighton and Hove City Council and Kemp Town parliamentary candidate, said: "It's always been my view the vast majority of the people on Whitehawk are proud to live there, enjoy living there, keep their properties nicely and want to live peacefully and get on with their lives in a community.

"It is the very, very few who spoil it for everybody else. It just means we have all got to try and encourage the 99 per cent to continue doing what they are doing and working together."