HAVING read about Mr Smith who has been the target of loutish anti-social behaviour in his street (April 10), I can confirm as a fellow resident in the same street that these are not isolated incidents.

I have lived here for five years and the street was very peaceful until just over a year ago when the council saw fit to move in a problem family.

Within days the police were in the street for the first time I have ever seen. They have been regular visitors since with hardly a week going by without a visit.

Teenagers drinking in the streets, discarding their cans on the road and general thuggishness are now the order of the day.

As usual nothing is done about it and poor Mr Smith is asking to be moved. Why? Why should he be driven out of his home by others?

We see regular articles about how Safer York Partnership and the police are really making a difference on the streets of York, and they provide facts and figures to prove it.

What a load of rubbish. Unfortunately our authorities and political system are so wrapped up in institutionalised deceit that we just get fobbed of with any old tosh wrapped up as facts.

Chief Constable Della Cannings tried to silence her so-called armchair critics "who have nothing better to do than sit at home writing letters of complaint".

Ms Cannings needs to wake up and get the job done properly because the cancer of teenage anti-social behaviour has been allowed to fall out of control.

It is now a serious issue and one that the authorities have had no impact on at all. That is the reality of life on the streets.

Name and address supplied.

Updated: 10:50 Wednesday, April 14, 2004