CONGRATULATIONS to York Police for cracking down on the "Barbecue from hell" in Tang Hall (July 11). The utter selfishness of the person concerned - who had no right to be exposing her children to the dangers of alcohol and of drunken louts - was revealed by her telling remark that "we were having a great time".

One hopes that, having at last made a start, the police will now continue to take firm action against anti-social behaviour.

A problem which is crying out for determined police intervention is that of the growing crowd of thugs who gather on the Millennium Bridge and the adjoining Fulford meadows, and proceed to take control of the whole area.

Several times a week, and especially on Friday nights, the bridge, paths, and roads, all of them essential routes to and from the university, become impassable.

In addition to its vandalism, fights, open drug dealing, threats of violence against the public, drunkenness, and use of the entire area as a lavatory, the gang includes a number of arsonists. Their handiwork has been only too apparent in recent months on the riverbank, in the Fulford Cross allotments, and in Hospital Fields Road.

It's no surprise that students - and presumably others - have been attacked.

No doubt these yobs, like the self-centred mother in Tang Hall, are also "having a great time", to the detriment of everybody else.

Let us hope that the police will bring the same pressure to bear on the abuses which are taking place on and around the Millennium Bridge before an already intolerable situation spirals even further out of control.

Adrian Jarvis,

Bishopthorpe Road, York.

Updated: 10:21 Friday, July 15, 2005