Residents are calling for more police patrols at the eastern end of Sheppey after syringes were found on a children’s football pitch.

There are fears Leysdown Football Club, in Shellness Road, is being used at night by drug users.

The site has been vandalised three times in the past five weeks as panels in the dugout were smashed and a fire set on part of the pitch.

Thieves also took a till from a cafe next to the pitch by breaking through the roof.

Club secretary Melissa Boiling has found needles on the pitch and the dugout was vandalised.

She said: “At the end of the day my children play on that pitch and we are going to have to make sure we scour it because the last thing we want is someone falling down on a needle in a tackle.

“The police just don’t seem interested. There was not even a community warden at our last parish council meeting.”

She has contacted Swale council’s environmental services department to dispose of the potentially dangerous syringes.

The club is now taking steps of its own to make the area secure.

They are offering a £300 reward for anyone who comes forward with information that leads to an arrest.

At its last meeting, Leysdown Parish Council agreed to help fund CCTV cameras for the grounds.

The amount it will give is to be agreed after some prices have been gathered.

Miss Boiling said: “Hopefully it will help. We are going to go for the one that goes automatically to our smart phones. We live only a minute away from the dugouts.”

She and groundsman John Osmond are also checking the area regularly.

A Kent Police spokesman said: “We have been made aware of a couple of incidents of criminal damage.

"The local officers have been asked to pay attention to the area when they are in Leysdown.”

• Anyone with information about the vandalism should contactthe Island Neighbourhood Teamon 101