I was sitting at my desk on a Wednesday afternoon with an unseasonably warm breeze drifting through the open window when the email I had been waiting for finally arrived.

"Meet us tomorrow at the bench outside Oxfam at 2.30pm," the sender instructed - "and bring ID".

The al fresco location and lack of knowledge about the people I was meeting, meant it was the most unusual interview set-up in my whole journalism career.

It's also fair to say it was the most nerve-wracking.

A story I had written titled 'Feral Behaviour Ruins Trade' described how shopkeepers in Carshalton were calling on the police to act against yobs they believed were scaring away customers.

According to shop owners, gangs of youths hanging around Carshalton High Street were drinking, starting fires and having sex in public.

But as soon as the article was put on the website, yourlocalguardian.co.uk, it became apparent there was another side to the story.

More than 60 comments were posted about the piece - most of them from youngsters expressing their outrage at being branded troublemakers.

We are not scum or vandals they said, but are well-educated kids with nowhere else to go.

Would I, they continued, be prepared to meet them face to face to see for myself what they are really like?

I had my doubts, not least because much of their anger was directed at me personally, the rubbishy reporter'.

Putting fears of mob violence to one side though, emails were exchanged with someone called Beki and the bench' rendezvous arranged.

The following day, sitting there on my own waiting for them to turn up I wondered if my decision had been a wise one.

I was then given more cause for concern when a troop of little figures dressed in jeans, black hooded tops and trainers suddenly descended on the bench from nearby trees.

"Are you Richard?" one of the group, a girl, asked.

"Yes," I replied, taking out my press card to prove it.

Identification ascertained, the mood relaxed and I was convinced that, rather than being at risk, I was actually among a group of friendly, affable teenagers.

Fifteen-year-old Katie Dixon got straight to the point and told me groups of 20 or so teenagers do congregate in Carshalton High Street after school and at weekends.

But, she added, the accusations of the shopkeepers that they drink, smash windows and have sex in public, simply were not true.

"Not many of them know us in person," the Carshalton High School for Girls pupil said. "Most of us don't drink and we don't take drugs, but if something goes wrong we're blamed for it.

"They should like us because most of us are really nice. There's just the odd couple that get rowdy.

"Most of the kids that hang around Carshalton are educated as we are all in school and some of us have left school with great GCSEs.

"We are not ruining Carshalton village. We go in the high street shops and we are their best customers."

The group informed me that they all come from different schools including Carshalton Girls, John Fisher School, Wallington County Grammar School and Stanley Park High School.

Collectively they refer to themselves as the Carshalton Lot and they are bonded together by a shared taste in metal, emo - or emotional rock - and alternative music.

Rather than hanging out to cause trouble they say, they hang out just to have fun with each other - a claim reinforced by their relationship with the law enforcers.

Beki Clarke, 13, also from Carshalton Girls, said: "We are not a gang, we are more like friends. We don't go around beating people up.

"We speak to the police and we are all friends with them. They tell us to be quiet and stop doing what we shouldn't be.

"Everyone says the police aren't doing their job, but they are because they tell us to shut up."

The criticisms levelled against the Carshalton Lot by shop keepers come at the same time as Sutton Council are cutting spending on youth services.

One the one hand it seems teenagers are accused of loitering in the streets and on the other the local authority are closing youth centres such as Club Constellation in North Cheam.

The absence of any alternative to Carshalton High Street as a place to meet is one of the main gripes felt by Katie, Beki et al.

They have already been moved on from the bandstand in Sutton High Street, Manor Park and Carshalton Park.

Now in Carshalton, Rockstock, the fortnightly youth rock concert held at the Charles Cryer Theatre, is the only thing they have.

"We got kicked out of other places and Carshalton is closer to where we live," Katie said. "We've only got Rockstock and that's every few weeks. We've got nowhere else.

"We just want somewhere where we can go and listen to music."

Councillors admit cuts have been made to the youth services because of financial pressures, but they also claim they are improving how the service is delivered.

Instead of youth centres, which are described as static' facilities, they want youth workers to go out into the community and engage with teenagers on the ground.

Not content to wait for them to arrive, the Carshalton Lot have taken matters into their own hands by getting a petition together asking for a covered bandstand in Carshalton Park.

After adding my name to the list and getting some photos of them to go with the story, it is time for me to say goodbye.

From starting the encounter fearing I was about to be lynched it is ended by exchanging Myspace addresses.

The Carshalton Lot, I feel, have got a bad deal and I realise I'm partly responsible.

Ultimately, I conclude, they are a good bunch of kids who have a strong sense of solidarity with each other and just want somewhere to go and socialise.

As Katie, said: "I feel that we do cause some trouble but they make it worse than it really is. They just exaggerate so much and it's so annoying because there's no other place we can hang around. We just all became friends - it's the way we are.

"Even my dad admitted being like us."