THE headteacher of a school in Epping is fighting back at claims that his pupils could be vandalising play areas.

Broken glass and litter are just some of the problems at Epping's play parks and the town council is blaming youngsters from St John's school on Tower Road.

But headteacher George Yerosimou believes everyone in the community is responsible.

He said: "We're happy to support any initiative but everyone needs to be involved and make sure the children behave. I would really be annoyed if they're saying St John's School is the only problem."

Town council staff visit the play areas on a regular basis to clean up mess caused by vandals.

But councillors want to come up with a way of preventing the damage before it is caused, which is why they are targeting pupils at St John's School with a letter asking them to be more respectful of the community.

Councillor Rob Macrae believes the damage is caused by teenagers but is more widespread than one school.

He said: "It's not just St John's School. They're not causing the problem. We should make the letter wider than that."

He added: "It's the teenagers who are damaging the play equipment. I would like to see the parks tidied up so they're not a disgrace to the town."

School staff at St John's monitor the gates at lunchtime to ensure pup-ils remain on the premises, and often patrol the town.

Mr Yerosimou said: "We have a good relationship with local police so we try our best but it's very difficult unless everybody takes responsibility."

A particular problem is the Lower Swaines recreation ground which is renowned as a meeting point for youths.

Town clerk Bob Whit-tome believes there is no simple answer to reducing the vandalism that goes on there at night.

He said: "We will always be in a position where we're responding to problems rather than resolving them."

Councillor Ken Avey told last week's town council meeting: "I don't think that whatever we say or do we can come up with a way of reducing this.

"It's a problem which is all over the country but all we can do is complain to the police.

"We could sit here all night and talk about it but we won't get it better."