A MONTH ago the Globe reported that Wirral Council took 45 actions under the Regulation of Investigatroy Powers Act, RIPA, last year.

This week you reported that even the government was worried about gross misuse of RIPA by councils.

You also reported Cllr Leah Fraser's frustration in trying to find out just what 'crimes' our council had targeted. Was RIPA used here to attack serious crime and terrorism or not ?

I am trying to find out using the Freedom of Information Act. I have asked formally for num-bers of crimes targeted by RIPA actions under theft, viol-ence against the person, drug dealing, terrorist plots. The council claimed that 'numerous successful proseut-ions' followed the RIPA actions. I have asked for numbers for criminal convictions, custodial sentences, cautions, terrorists detained, crack houses closed, fines, penalty notices, ASBOs, Acceptable Behaviour Orders.

With this information Wirral citizens can make their own minds up about RIPA and its effectiveness.

Naturally my request to the Council 'Information Manager' has not even been acknow-ledged after three weeks.

Readers can draw their own conclusions from this silence.

DP Gregg, Spital.