FENCING slathered with slippery paint has been put up to protect an Abingdon building.

Residents had complained that the former Upper Reaches Hotel in Thames Street had become a favourite hangout for antisocial youths, since its closure in 2015.

But police said problems have now been solved thanks to high-visibility patrols and new fencing coated with ‘anti-climb paint’; an oily substance used to deter intruders.

In a neighbourhood newsletter this month, officers said: ‘Since these measures have been introduced we have had no further [antisocial behaviour] reports.”

In March the police helicopter was called out to the building after a group of young trespassers hauled themselves up onto the hotel roof, raising concerns about security.