Residents living in the Old Hill area of Falmouth say squatters are making their lives a misery with loud music, late night parties and vandalism.

The squatters occupy a bungalow on Pendarves Road backing onto Tresillian Road formerly owned by convicted paedophile and retired builder Stanley Pirie.

There are currently around three squatters living there but the number tends to fluctuate with as many as eight people being there at any one time.

Neighbours say that the police are being called to the house constantly but nothing is being done about the problems that are being caused.

One neighbour who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals said: "It's bloody disgusting. Their dog gets out and they just scream it's not a nice environment. Good squatters improve the place but these are in our face with 'I just don't care'."

I work away a lot and we live in spitting distance of these people, I find that unerving.

He says that that people have had their cars vandalised when they were forced to park slightly over the squat's driveway. Tyres have been let down and valves removed.

Police have been called on a number of occasions to incidents at the house. On one occasion police were going house to house asking if people had seen anything. One officer told the neighbours if they thought the outside was bad the inside was even worse.

"I really could do without stuff like this," said the resident. "The neighbours are fed up to the back teeth but nothing is being done.

"I work for a living and pay my taxes. Something should be done, they cannot get away with it. If they kept it tidy and improved the place it would be OK. I find it embarrassing. If that was council house and they did something like this they would be out, but nothing's being done. They are trying peoples' patience.

"I would like to see somebody else living there. It was a nice house, now it looks like Steptoe's back yard. It's bloody disgusting."

One of the squatters, who appeared to be living in the garage of the bungalow, said there had not been any parties for a few weeks.

The man, who did not give his name but said he was a former heroin addict and musician and admitted he's been to prison for petty crime said he had lived at the house for five or six years. He had formerly been a tenant but the current owners had tried to evict him so he became a squatter because he had 'nowhere else to go'.

He said he had come down from London to try and make a clean break.

He said he now made a living selling MP3s of his music and harvesting marine life on the mud banks of the Penryn River

He said there were currently two or three people living in the house but there could be up to eight with many more coming and going.

He admitted to run ins with the neighbours over loud music from late night parties, some of which, he said, had turned violent. But he said there hadn't been any for weeks now.

He said the house had been flooded after the water tank in the attic burst and the boiler had gone so that there was no hot water or heating.