THE effectiveness of "nuisance diaries" to record minor crimes and anti social behaviour has been brought into question by a police officer.

Community beat officer Helen Savage described the diaries as an "administrative burden" and said there were a number of problems with them.

Police argue there are problems with distributing and collecting the nuisance forms.

There is also confusion about what measures can be taken to prevent such incidents from happening in the first place.

Sergeant Savage said: "All in all, we feel it creates the expectation that something will be done there and then, and is another administrative burden.

"We would much rather have a system whereby these incidents are reported directly to us, or to the relevant other authority.

"If the incidents are of an ongoing nature, complainants are advised to record each incident in a diary form in any case.

"This is the reason that the form has not received the sanction of either the police or the Police Authority."