Police are making plans to deal with large groups of 'troublemakers' from Aylsham and North Walsham who are making Friday night visits to Cromer.

At Monday evening's Cromer Town Council, David Phillip-Pritchard said he had seen '40 youths drinking and smashing bottles' at The Meadow on a recent evening.

Police community support office Richard Kerfoot said: 'The Friday before, there was a group of youths from North Walsham who came by train to Cromer. We positioned a police car in the car park as a deterrent.'

He added: 'I was at Cromer Academy in the week, and was told it would happen again. I've been told it's a regular Friday night thing. A plan will be put into place.'

He told Mr Phillip-Pritchard that the incident he had witnessed involved 'troublemakers from Aylsham'.

? Mr Kerfoot told the council that there had been 28 crimes in the 28 days since the last full meeting.

He said: 'It's gone very quiet now that the summer rush has ended.'

He added: 'Theft from shops has gone up, but that's probably the financial situation, with people helping themselves to things.'

Mayor Greg Hayman asked if any work was being done to protect shops against shoplifters.

Mr Kerfoot said: 'We did a project a few months ago, which reduced the crimes by 75pc. As soon as we closed it, it went up again.'

He added that he had spoken to Morrisons in Cromer after he saw a display of 200 bottles of whisky 'in a prominent place' without security tags.