Yobs are hurling abuse, bullying people, letting off fireworks or begging every 22 minutes somewhere in Oxfordshire.

Police figures show between December and February 5,948 reports of antisocial behaviour from residents were logged in Oxfordshire. That equates to every 22 minutes — compared to once every half hour in Buckinghamshire, once every 45 minutes in Slough, Bracknell and Maidenhead and once an hour in Reading, Newbury and Wokingham.

These acts, such as rowdy drunkenness in the street or nuisance and intimidation from gangs of youths, are not classified by police as crimes, are but collected to show antisocial behaviour hot-spots.

But pensioner Bob Marchant claims police have done nothing to end three years of yobbish nuisance which has made his life a misery. Louts hurl stones at his windows, smash glass bottles on his patio and keep him awake at night by banging on windows and doors, at his home in Bowerman Close, in Kidlington.

The 65-year-old, who lives with his terminally ill wife Audrey, claims he called 37 times in a three-month period last year after the trouble escalated.

He even caught one of the yobs hiding in his back garden – but when he held him until police arrived, it was Mr Marchant who ended up being arrested for assault. He was later released without charge.

Mr Marchant said: “Police are not interested in this unless there is actual criminal damage. But I call having stones thrown at the house, lumps of concrete thrown over the garage, traffic cones and bottles landing and smashing on the patio criminal damage.

“These kids run rings around the Pcsos. Although it doesn’t bother me it upsets my wife. She is ill and gets really upset especially when kids are banging on the window at 11 o’clock at night.”

Oxford police commander Supt Andy Murray said low-level antisocial behaviour was treated seriously because it affected people’s quality of life and because it could lead to crimes blighting neighbourhoods such as vandalism and criminal damage.

He added: “These kind of incidents reduce the quality of people’s lives and when people ring the police they don’t distinguish between what is a crime or just nuisance behaviour and they shouldn’t have to, because both reduce their quality of life at a neighbourhood level.

“We are telling people to report these incidents to police. Our priority is to reduce anti-social behaviour because it affects quality of life.

“Some of it will lead to crimes – such as criminal damage.”

Officers now gather figures on antsocial behaviour figures and increase Pcso patrols in hot-spots and pinpoint the cause of the problem, such as shops selling alcohol to teenagers, or trouble caused by people walking home from a night out.

The figures for December 1 to February 28 rose by 554 incidents on the previous year. These included rowdy and inconsiderate behaviour, neighbour arguments, nuisance pets, street drinking, prostitution, parking problems, letting off fireworks and begging.

Oxford city centre suffered 464 reports of antisocial behaviour in 90 days.

The city was followed close behind by the Ruscote, Neithrop and Hardwick neighbourhood area of Banbury with 312 reports and Didcot South with 272.

Areas which suffered the fewest amounts of antisocial behaviour were largely rural such as Nettlebed, with eight incidents, and Burford, 16.