From R. O'Brien:-

WHILE I sympathise with 'Disgusted Grandad' (Mailbox, September 29) regarding the abuse his daughter and her friend received from the four 10-year-olds in Birkenhead Park, I feel he is unfair to single out this much maligned area of the town as a place not to visit.

Everyone I know recognises that standards of behaviour from an increasing number of children have not so much declined as plummeted.

In the same Mailbox, 'Fed Up', from Greasby (not Birkenhead Park!), was complaining about louts littering, running through people's gardens, destroying trees and using foul language.

'Fed Up' asks when something will be done to prevent a decline into a 'sink' estate.

I ask not how we can prevent a decline, but how we can stop or even slow down the one we are well and truly stuck in.

Are there any trouble-free 'nice' areas of the borough left? Surely we can do something to improve matters for ourselves?

Then worry about foxhunting!

Address supplied.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.