A SUPERMARKET overrun with drunk children has joined forces with Beckenham residents to tackle a surge in graffiti, arson and smashed bottles.

The action follows months of anti-social behaviour by youths who loiter around a secluded part of the town centre abusing shop staff, setting rubbish on fire and vomiting in the street.

Sainsbury's, in Beckenham High Street, will adjust its CCTV camera to sweep its side entrance and will buy a graffiti removing machine to clean its walls.

The store's manager Barry West said: "We've had thefts and serious verbal assaults. Sometimes we close early because we are so overrun with 14-year-olds drinking alcohol."

Alan Freeman, of the West Beckenham Residents' Association, said: "I've seen patches of vomit all along Faversham Road. Kids sit on residents' walls drinking booze and just throw their finished bottles in the road."

Sainsbury's is also expected to start locking the gate at the rear of its building to prevent fly-tippers and vandals who slide down the slope in shopping trolleys.

Gilbert and Caswell car park, at the end of Faversham Road, will be enclosed and a gate will be constructed on the adjacent car park underneath Provident House.

And the Sainsbury's-owned land between the end of Burrell Row and the entrance of Croydon Road Recreation Ground will be given additional street lighting after a resident's dog cut its paw on broken glass.

Beat officer PC Andy Collin said: "Kids have lit fires on the rubbish in the car park and have left syringes and condoms in residents' gardens."

Kelsey Park ward councillor Michael Tickner said: "We will have a major purge and are offering a reward of up to £500 for information leading to the prosecution of perpetrators of these environmental crimes."

Beckenham town centre manager Cheryl Curr said: "We won't let the vandals win. We are determined, as a group, to solve the problem together."