A grandmother fears her family's children are in danger of catching AIDS or hepatitis after two youngsters found used syringes near a play area.

She claims the discovery of needles is the last straw in a catalogue of complaints which she says has blighted her home for years.

Kay Huxtable, 72, of Beach Green, Shoreham-by-Sea, who is grandmother to 19 grand-children, says she is fed up of making complaints about the problems of rats, rubbish and frequent invasions by travellers on the land behind her home to Adur District Council.

Her daughter Sally Huxtable blames the travellers for many of the problems. She says her nephew Marcus Eaton, aged 14, found the needles just days after a group of five caravans moved on to a patch of land at the bottom of her back garden.

Kay said: "It just seems like no one is interested in cleaning this place up."

Coun Maurice Pitchford, of Shoreham Beach Residents Association, who represents the Marine ward, said the district council has done little to tackle the ongoing problems which, he says, have turned the area into an eyesore. He promised to bring the matter up again with the council.