PRIVATE security guards could be patrolling Watchet Marina this summer following the collapse of a campaign to get closed circuit television cameras in the town.

Marina manager William Bowden told the Somerset County Gazette: "We are actively considering bringing in hired guards to protect our interests and the interests of our customers."

Fearing more trouble this year, he condemned the "rampaging idiots" who last year held sway with a reign of intimidation.

Community leaders united last May to condemn the "loutish behaviour" of gangs of hooligans accused of threatening the marina's commercial future, leaving a swathe of damage and destruction at the £5.1 million show-piece development -- the lynchpin of the town's regeneration hopes.

Less than a week after the County Gazette launched its Watch It! campaign in August backing the efforts of community leaders to get surveillance cameras set up around the marina, Harbour and Esplanade areas of the town, hundreds of people had signed petition forms.

But in December Watchet Town Council threw out a plan to install a CCTV system designed to bring an end to the trouble despite massive local backing on the grounds of cost.

During one weekend in May, yobs pulled up paving slabs and threw them at a moored catamaran, smashed pontoon lights, jostled and spat at boat owners on the Esplanade, upturned flower tubs and emptied rubbish bins into the marina.

The rampage, believed to have been carried out by up to 40 youths over two nights, only ended when a beach bonfire -- using wood taken from a boatyard -- was cut short by the in-coming tide.