YORK head of youth services Paul Herring commented on how wrong it was for kids to go on the rampage in Chapelfields because they said they were bored (October 19).

Kids have been bored for years. It's just that, due to the interference of numerous do-gooders, the punishments now given to children have no effect.

Pre-war if a child did something wrong it would be a clip behind the ear from the local bobby. After the war it became a telling off, in the Sixties and Seventies you got sent on a foreign holiday because you were deprived.

Nowadays however the judicial system is so ineffective the kids collect convictions like past generations have collected stamps.

What is our council doing to get more money out of the Government to rectify the mass vandalism that we are having to pay more and more council taxes for?

They should be hounding the Government to provide laws that either lock these offenders away or ensure that they receive more than adequate compensation to clean up.

Secondly Mrs Allan and relatives wished that her boys had been locked up earlier in their crime spree (October 19). She is their mother and has had 16 and 18 years in which to teach her children right from wrong.

She, and all parents, should accept their responsibility for the upbringing of their children.

Finally even judges aren't prepared to use the law to protect us. Judge Hoffman said when convicting the jeweller Liam Kinsella that there would be "no burglaries if there were no handlers". He then only sentenced him to 18 months.

John Kerr,

Albion Avenue, York.

Updated: 11:12 Thursday, October 28, 2004