YOUNG people's grievances must be listened to or the country will suffer in future, a former High Wycombe youth worker warns, following the national riots.

Creating new facilities in Castlefield, such as a sports area, is vital to ensure problems seen there last week improve rather than escalating to the level of disorder elsewhere, according to Saqib Deshmukh.

The trouble in Castlefield paled hugely in comparison to what was witnessed around the major cities.

But police cars were attacked around the estate and there is significant anger and tension among the youth population, Mr Deshmukh said.

The High Wycombe father-of-two still knows many of the families on the estate after years as a youth worker.

He said: “The issue for them is they've got nowhere to go, it's facilities.”

He said this was the case from when he began working there in 1997 and said there had been a “short sighted” approach.

Mr Deshmukh said he had raised these issues from the start with both Wycombe District Council and Buckinghamshire County Council.

Cash is needed to regenerate areas like Castlefield not just town centre projects like Eden, he said.

Various proposals for Castlefield such as a sports area and youth centre never materialised in his time, he said.

“There's a trail of broken promises and young people have memories,” he said.

He said he felt accountable for the projects not becoming reality and felt “a sense of failure” when explaining to the youngsters that the council was now unable to make it happen.

“I don't think we've learnt our lessons in terms of be able to say right we need proper resources put into this area, full time staff,” he said.

Youngsters want to talk to the police and council to raise issues and explain the kind of facilities the area needs, he told the Bucks Free Press.

Mr Deshmukh said, nationally, there needed to be long term solutions, rather than just responding to a crisis.

“If you don't have young people talking, expressing their views, they look at other ways which are negative, anti-social, and we've seen that up and down the country.

“If we don't listen, I think sadly in the future we're going to suffer.”

Mr Deshmukh agreed there was a sense of hopelessness among some of these groups involved in the trouble.

“If young people have no stake in anything in society they think they've got nothing to lose and don't care. I do find it very worrying and distressing and we've got to break that cycle.”

He added: “Sending them to prison really doesn't solve the problem in the long run.”