By LEIGHTON KEITH - Taranaki Daily News

Bell Block business owners and residents sick of vandalism and thefts in the area are being urged to attend a meeting tonight aimed at cutting crime.

The meeting has been organised by North Taranaki Neighbourhood Support and will be held at Corbett House, 69 Corbett Rd, from 4.45pm.

The area has been plagued by problems with vandalism and scrap metal thefts.

The industrial area was also popular with boy racers who pour diesel on the roads so they can do skids.

Neighbourhood Support community co-ordinator Debbie Gut said police and New Plymouth District Council staff and councillors would attend the meeting.

"Out at Bell Block they have been getting hit by crims and I think that they've had enough."

Ms Gut said she hoped the meeting would put the community on alert and encourage people to keep an eye out for the offenders.

"People are going to put things in place to make it extremely difficult for these people to do what they are doing."

Ms Gut said the more people who got involved the better.

Taranaki Vehicle Brokers owner Kevin O'Neill, who has been a member of the organisation for seven years, said people in the area had had enough.

"I think that they need to be united in looking after their own mini community."

Mr O'Neill said belonging to the organisation allowed people to keep in regular contact and kept informed of what was happening in their area.

"It means, at the end of the day, the whole industrial area can be another set of eyes for the police and the community."

Mr O'Neill hoped crime would drop if enough people in the community played their part.