Get tough on park yobs

The damage done to the Victorian bandstand in Mary Stevens Parks is yet another of the many examples of wanton vandalism, antisocial behaviour into the small hours, drinking, drug taking and threats of marauding gangs to local residents in all Dudley's parks and open spaces.

The list seems endless and the repair costs must be enormous.

A councillor is calling for an alcohol ban but the police don't have sufficient manpower to have a continual presence in the park, or anywhere else where such a ban is in place, and the council seems unwilling to employ park keepers or wardens.

One immediate and obvious answer to the Mary Stevens bandstand problem would be to electrify the tops of the supports the yobs are climbing. A quick high voltage belt would be a sure deterrent.

However, I am sure that no matter how justified this would be, our PC council officers would declare it "an infringement of human rights" or a "health and safety" risk. One could always hope that a yob or two might fall and seriously injure themselves.

Since many of the yob problems we suffer are alcohol related, the sources of supply should be the prime targets. These are almost invariably back-street off-licences whose owners' sole concern is profit, no matter at what social cost.

They should be punished so severely for transgressions that none would dare break the law, yet currently, even if they get caught, which is very difficult for police or Trading Standards to do, the penalties are often derisive.

The law should be tightened so that the maximum penalty of £10,000 is always imposed and the off-licence is removed from the premises, not just the named licensee.

The laws should also be changed to make the parents of these marauding adolescent yobs far more responsible for the behaviour of their offspring. Many parents are overprotective of their kids while young, but seem to totally wash their hands of them after the age of entry into secondary education.

Roger Bruton, Paganel Drive, Dudley.