EAGLE-eyed residents are being recruited as “park guardians” in a new initiative to stamp out antisocial behaviour.

Queens Park is the first Bournemouth park to benefit from the scheme, which will ask golfers, dog walkers, joggers and other park users to be alert to problems and report any incidents to the police or council.

It was the idea of Police Community Support Officer Richard Frew who saw it as a way of building community relations and of making the Charminster and Queens Park area safer.

Sgt Steve Houston said: “What we want to do is encourage people who use the park to become the eyes and ears not just for the police but for all the local services.

“It is a two-way thing. Everyone who signs up to the scheme will get emails from us whenever there is an issue in the park and also a card with all the relevant numbers to phone and report any incidents.

“So we will keep people updated and in return we want people to report problems rather than just ignore them.

“This is not a park that has a lot of issues because it is in a good area. However we do see some antisocial behaviour in the peripheral area of the park, as well as some graffiti, tipping and minor damage.

“If we allow these things to take hold then worse problems follow. We’re getting in early, it’s about keeping a good area safe.”

The scheme is funded by £958 from the Green Goals partnership and backed by Bournemouth University students’ union, local ward councillors, AFC Bournemouth and local residents.

Students’ union president Toby Horner said: “It’s nice to show that the student body does care about this sort of thing. People think we just drop in to the area and don’t care about it but it’s our community too and it’s good that we’re putting back into it.”

And Tom Jeffes, commercial assistant at AFC Bournemouth, said they were pleased to be involved in the scheme: “A lot of our fans live this way and walk through here, it’s an area that directly relates to our club,” he said.