NEIGHBOURS living close to Ipswich's Bourne Park are hoping to learn tomorrow if they are to be successful in improving park conditions.In May, residents of Monmouth Close and Montgomery Road organised a petition regarding the park's 24-hour access policy after citing the increasing problems of teenagers using the park after dark.

NEIGHBOURS living close to Ipswich's Bourne Park are hoping to learn tomorrow if they are to be successful in improving park conditions.

In May, residents of Monmouth Close and Montgomery Road organised a petition regarding the park's 24-hour access policy after citing the increasing problems of teenagers using the park after dark.

Residents claim that in the summer during the school term the number of youths using the park at the night increases, and with it comes litter, vandalism and underage drunkenness.

They say the park's permanently open gates are attracting people to the area at night.

In 1999, the South West Ipswich Youth Initiative, backed by the police, asked for a trial period of 24-hour pedestrian access to give teenagers a safe place to meet in the park.

But complaints from neighbours living nearby soon started, with the blame attached to the open gates for causing an increase in litter and vandalism.

The Neighbourhood Watch group has requested for more than £20,000 to be spend on improving the area. An estimated £7,500 would be spent on locally monitored CCTV instillation on or near the Park Lodge and £15,000 would be spent on improving facilities for young people with possible a basketball area and shelter being built.

But recently vandalism has been reduced in the park and the park has become well used by cyclists at all hours wanting to gain access to and from Wherstead Road.