I WRITE in response to Andy Squirrel's letter ("Alan's an artist not a vandal", March 19 ).

While I am sure that there are many people out there who consider Alan's work artful or pleasing to the eye, the point is that all of his "work" mentioned in the Evening Press article 'The artful bodger' was attached to property belonging to someone else.

It then becomes nothing less than criminal damage (vandalism), as there is either a cost, often to the taxpayer, or considerable time and effort involved in restoring the property to its former state.

If someone chooses to

decorate their own property in this way, or property specifically designed for such use, then fine.

But would Mr Squirrel be so supportive of this type of activity if the uninvited results were spread across the front of his shop when he arrived for work, causing hours of scrubbing, scraping, possibly re-painting, or having to pay large amounts of money for someone else to do it?

Probably not.

The fact that grafitti often requires a particular skill does not make it any more excusable in law than breaking windows, slashing car tyres or arson.

They all cause damage to someone else's property without their authority, and are crimes.

PC Paul Beckwith,

York Community Team,

Lower Friargate, York.

Updated: 09:39 Tuesday, March 22, 2005