Parish council chairman John Booth said there were a string of incidents in the village last weekend, including a vicious attack on a teenager who was 'left for dead in a pool of blood'.

The 18-year-old was beaten unconscious on Friday night and left lying in the middle of a busy road, only to be rescued by a local couple just seconds before he was hit by a taxi.

Elsewhere in the village, vandals ripped out the stakes of trees planted by children and used them to start two fires, while police were also called to a gang drinking and causing havoc on Church Lane.

Now residents are warning they are going to take the law into their own hands if police do not sort the problem out.

Cllr John Booth, who receives regular phone calls about the problems, said: "We've got the village up in arms – all age groups.

"They are saying that if the police do not sort things out they are going to take things in to their own hands and, to be honest, I don't blame them.

"We have got a Government that has banned smoking – why we can't ban drinking on the streets I don't know. There's not enough police on the streets."

The mum of the teenager beaten up thanked the couple who saved her son from being run over, but said she had been left shocked at the severity of the attack.

She said her son was 'a gentle giant who wouldn't hurt a fly.'

"For this to happen to somebody like him is just terrible" she added.

Some residents the Advertiser spoke to did not want to be named, or have their photograph taken, because of fears of reprisals.

But on the same night, youths were reported causing trouble and knocking stones off a wall in the 'jitty' between Church Lane and Brinsmoor and on Sunday night 'mindless youths' started two fires on the recreation ground.

Cllr Booth said: "There are a lot of elderly people around here.

"One lady on Queen's Drive stopped me last week whose husband had a heart condition and they won't go out and confront them because they are frightened of retaliation.

"I'm talking to the police and I've got Nottinghamshire County Council coming to look at closing the footpath.

"I'm going down every route I can to sort this problem."

The beat manager for Brinsley, Pc Richard Reynolds, said officers have been visiting parents of troublemakers and writing warning letters, increasing patrols and delivering advice sheets and diaries for residents to log incidents.

"Although we have seen a significant reduction in anti-social behaviour in the past few months, we continue to implement numerous strategies to try and combat the problem" he said.