Council officers will remove equipment from a children's playground after residents complained that gangs of teenagers had turned their lives into a nightmare.

But the Reverend Paul Flowers said the decision by Bradford Area Panel was an admission they could not deal with anti-social behaviour.

Coun Flowers, a panel member, said at the meeting: "I have sympathy with the residents, but if we simply remove every bit of equipment from every playground we are acknowledging we can't deal with the problems.

"We shouldn't allow anti-social behaviour to prevent ordinary people from enjoying public space. I don't think we should indulge them by having no equipped play areas in the city."

The case was the second to be dealt with by the panel in weeks, but chairman Coun Clive Richardson said dealing with anti-social behaviour was a police priority.

Coun Richardson, who is also chairman of West Yorkshire Police Authority planning working party, said it was always the first issue to be brought up at police forums and public meetings.

Officers told the panel that 60 people were consulted about the problems at the playground on a new development at North Lea Avenue, Thackley. Thirty-eight people wanted the equipment removed while 13 said it should be kept.

People who complained said the layout of the site meant the playground was almost next to people's bedroom windows.

Richard Hodgson, who attended the meeting on behalf of residents who had asked for it to be moved, said: "It was equipped last year and has been a magnet for anti-social behaviour ever since."

He said there was intimidation and violence, indecency, drunkenness, damage and vandalism. "For 20 months the police and Bradford Council have been unable to resolve the situation," he said. "The police are unable to respond quickly enough, if at all, to deal with specific incidents."