SIR - I read with interest the article about Worcester's need for wet centres rather than blanket drink bans. In his response, Conservative councillor Ian Imray said he appreciated some people had an alcohol problem, but he didn't know what the answer was. Whatever happened to the two fundamental Thatcherite policies namely, care in the community and the fact that one cannot buck the market?

Over the years, care in the community for a certain group of people only served to stigmatise them as social outcasts. As for the market forces, if anyone is free to sell or buy alcohol, then we should not be surprised when the inevitable happens.

The no-alcohol zones policy, which is primarily aimed at certain social outcasts with an alcohol problem, does not add up to much when seen in the context of increasing the number of nightclubs and extending their drinking hours.

Alcoholics need help and some need proper and long-term care. The need for wet centres is proof that care in the community was an abysmal Tory policy - but I do not suppose the present Government has the will to reverse it.

L SPITERI,

Worcester