RARELY a week goes by without some idiot destroying property or being a nuisance in some way.

When I was a lad there was less crime, mainly because the local bobby stopped it developing by giving an offender a "clip round the ear" at the first sign of trouble. One never knew if there was a bobby just around the corner.

"We always aim to respond to calls", say the police.

But it's then too late. By the time to police get there, the vandals have run away.

That is the trouble. Everyone knows where the police are - in the station shuffling papers instead of being out and about stopping crime before it starts. Put the bobby back on the beat.

PETER ALCOCK,

Upton Snodsbury,

Worcestershire.