They were just adding the finishing touches to the cobble circle on Paterson Road when the police ­officer arrived.

Katie’s outraged mother, Sherie, who helped take a bucket of water to the circles that the kids had coloured in, said: “It was ­ridiculous; particularly with the weather we have been having this summer.

“The chalk would have all been washed away by the next day, if not sooner.”

Katie (14) and her friends have used the chalk for hopscotch and other traditional playground games in the past.

But their colourful artwork on Friday this time prompted a complaint to the police by an onlooker.

Katie said: “We were just doing lovehearts with names and a big rainbow circle with all the different colours.

“The policeman that came was really nice and said he didn’t want to be a killjoy but said if we didn’t clean it up it would be looked upon as vandalism.

“Mum came out with a basin and sponges and we cleaned it all off.

“It was just a bit of fun in one place. We didn’t think anything was wrong.

“Our tub of chalks actu­ally says that they are pavement chalks!”

Sherie (43), who confessed to playing more than a few games of hopscotch in her youth, slammed the waste of police time.

She added: “If our youngsters cannot play these inno­cent games or make a small chalk drawing on the pavement what are they suppose to do in their spare time?

“Would people prefer them to be out breaking windows and downing Buckfast?”

“I do not know if the police officer was embarrassed to be called out to such a trivial incident, but he certainly looked uncomfortable.

“To be fair to him he was very good with the children, but I am sure that he would have preferred to be doing something more pro­ductive with his time on duty.”

She added: “We spent hours as kids playing chalk games, and it is nice to see youngsters starting to learn them again.

“But unfortunately, because one killjoy complained to the police, the children had to clean up all the chalk under the watchful eye of the officer.

“All they had to do was ask the kids to make sure that the chalk was washed away when they had finished – that’s if the rain did not do it first.”

Police said that they responded to the incident because it was a report that the youngsters were spray painting on a public bench.

Chief Inspector Andy Walker, area commander, said: “The complainant thought that the children were writing graffiti on the bench and defacing public property.

“It turned out that the girls were writing with chalk on the bench and they were asked to remove it, which they did. The call was made with good intentions and we responded accordingly to what was a minor incident.”

Chief Insp Walker added: “I and many others played hopscotch as a child, and we would not have taken any action if this had been the cause of the complaint.”

The youngsters admitted that there had been a small amount of chalk on the bench, but the drawings they had to remove were on the ground.

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