VANDALISM is surely one of the most pressing problems for this area.

Public toilets are closed at dusk because of vandalism, some are permanently closed by it, and every week in the newspapers we read of cars burned out, parks wrecked, shop windows smashed and even a fishing boat torched.

Unreported are the things we see everyday in the streets - bus-shelters smashed, litter bins burned, telephone boxes destroyed.

Very late on Christmas night the time of peace and goodwill to all men as we were going to bed, a group of 10 or so young adults came down Alston Drive, presumably from a house at the top of the Drive or one of the streets off it. The first few of them came into our garden, right to our front door, where they picked up a large filled flowerpot, took it a few yards up the road and smashed it to pieces. We heard the noise but didn't find the damage until Boxing Day.

Having heard the noise, we looked out our window and saw the rest of the group kicking a green newspaper collection box, strewing the contents all down the road. They saw neighbours standing outside watching them, abandoned the box and walked off up Kayswell Road.

This kind of thing may not seem serious enough to report to the police as a crime, and often, as in our case, the damage is only discovered when it is too late to catch the offenders, but we do have to start doing something about this. We cannot go on allowing drunken yobbos to ruin our town and our lives.

Jeffrey R Butcher, Torrisholme.