Fed-up Vange families are to clear up their own backyard in a crime-busting crackdown.

Concerned families are to spearhead the drive to improve quality of life on the troubled estate following two murders in the space of a year.

Vange Community Housing - the company which has spent £20.3 million refurbishing homes on the estate - also announced it is helping set up a long-term crime strategy.

Vange has been rocked by two murders in the last 12 months. The attacks happened within yards of each other.

The latest came just over a week ago when Leon Murphy, 20, was battered to death in his Redgrave Road home.

In February last year Steven Harding, 16, was stabbed to death outside the Powerhouse pub - just 100 yards from Redgrave Road - by 16-year-old Jermayne Palmer.

A Quality of Life in Vange day will be held on Saturday at St Chad's Church Hall. The event will give residents advice on home and car security, crime prevention and neighbourhood watch.

Organiser Lynn Beaumont, of the Vange Millennium Community Association, said:

"People have this feeling it's a bit of a downtrodden estate, so we thought if you want to improve the estate and the security of your home then here's your chance.

"The community association is updating the estate so we are doing what we can to improve the quality of life as well. The two murders have put a slight edge on things, but I do not think Vange is any worse than anywhere else."

Vange is the focus of a host regeneration projects.

Vange Community Housing has taken control of many homes on the estate and is in the middle of a major home refurbishment project.

Thirty-two schools in Vange and Pitsea are also involved in the Education Action Zone, a Government initiative to boost learning in deprived areas.

Vange Community Housing today revealed it will open talks with police and community groups on tackling crime.

A spokesman said: "We are spending a lot of money refurbishing homes and we recognise there is no point in just doing that. We have to regenerate the whole community.

"A lot of agencies are concentrating their efforts and we are going in with them to devise a long-term strategy for the area which will tackle unemployment, crime, education, health and youth issues."

Council chiefs are also discussing the possibility of setting up a youth village on the troubled estate.

Councillor Mo Larkin, Labour member for Vange, said: "Of course residents feel threatened by the murders. It's not a nice thing to happen on your doorstep.

"But the people in Vange are very community spirited and are working to improve the estate.

"Basildon Council is going to form a group to look at Vange as a whole to try and combat crime and we are looking at a youth village."

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