DRUG-taking, boozing and solvent abuse - just some of the less-than-savoury activities which Bridgwater's disused cattle market is being used for these days.

The Bath Road and Bristol Road site closed down in the 1990s, and although four companies continue to operate from sections of the site, other areas are now empty and have fallen into disrepair.

This has seen the neglected buildings adopted by an underclass who gather at the site to indulge in a range of unsavoury - and quite often, downright illegal - behav-iour.

A recent Mercury investigation showed the abandoned market has become home to a range of miscreants, who gather there to drink, sniff glue, and even inject themselves with drugs.

Evidence of this behaviour was strewn around the floor, including empty beer cans, aerosols from glue-sniffing and even used syringes.

Immediately after the Mercury informed site owner Sedgemoor District Council of the situation at the market site, officers from the council's Clean Surroundings Team visited to make the area safe by removing the syringes.

And spokesman Claire Faun said the authority had already planned a range of steps to prevent such problems recurring.

She said: "We were aware of the problem, and taking positive action. We keep mending fencing, but people keep cutting through it again.

"Estimates on the cost of demolishing the old cattle sheds are due back to us on November 23, but we shall be making the site as secure as we can in the interim, and officers will be paying daily visits too."