ANGRY shop tenants say they are at their wits' end following the opening of a cyber-cafe which is proving a magnet to a town's youth.

The shopkeepers below Chepstow's computer centre and bar, which takes up the second floor of Hanbury House in Welsh Street, say complaints are met with abuse and often the noise goes up rather than down.

"It is making me ill. I am getting to the stage where I am thinking of packing up," said flower-shop proprietor Ann Thomas, who has been building her business over 18 years.

She said gangs of skateboarding youths aged between 13 and 18 tear around what used to be a quiet parade of shops, storm up and down stairs and sound as if they are holding a party above them.

A raised ornamental flower bed outside her premises has been destroyed and she often arrived in the morning to find windows smeared with food and piles of cans left by under-age drinkers.

At times it has taken the police to quieten things down, even though she says she and other tenants feel bad about calling the police out for such a task.

She can sometimes hardly hear customers speaking and has to apologise for the noise while dealing with flowers for weddings and funerals.

Mrs Thomas said other tenants had given up the struggle – there are now only three occupied units with four empty. The latest casualty, a hat shop, had found the situation intolerable.

Fellow tenant hairdresser Diane Jenkins agreed, and pointed out that nails holding up her ceiling panels were beginning to drop out.

"They are like a herd of cattle," she said. "We can hardly hear anything. The customers complain. When we say anything we just get abuse in return."

Mrs Thomas, who has had a kidney transplant, fears her health is deteriorating.

"I thought it was quite a good thing to start with," she said. "There is nothing for young people here, no cinema, no skateboard park. I have been on committees trying to get facilities like that, but all to no avail."

Mr Bryn Phillips of solicitors Hutchins and Thomas, agents for the landlord who is based in Madras, India, said he was aware of complaints but had received assurances that steps were being taken to rectify this.

The cafe is supported by Monmouth County Council, which pays the rent for the property through the cafe. A council spokesman said it had not received any official complaint though it had heard there was a litter problem, and urged the complainants to contact either Peter Gomer in the Leisure Department, chief executive Joyce Redfearn or local councillor Mrs Pam Burchill.

The spokesman also said the cafe had done 'wonders' for the youngsters of the town.