THE Government is failing to tackle violent street crime. It is an extraordinary state of affairs when the minister in charge of fighting crime admits that he himself fears for his safety and that of his family. It's only what frightened senior citizens have had to put up with over the last years, the yob element.

There could be no clearer admission that the government's policies on crime have completely failed.

A father of two brutally stabbed after chasing car thieves, a woman of 19 shot in the head by a man who stole her mobile phone in East London, terrified pensioner Beatrice Webber left in intensive care after she had a heart attack following a burglary. She later died in hospital.

These tragic tales are just the tip of the iceberg. Better policing might be a more intelligent answer to the boom in street crime. There should also be far tougher sentences handed out, instead of community service which is a complete waste of time.

Prisons should be places to fear, and not places of luxury. A life sentence should mean just that, there should be no early release for good behaviour.

If sex-offenders are jailed they should be kept inside with no early release, child-murder should carry the death-penalty, crimes against senior citizens and ordinary people should carry a heavy sentence.

Until the Government comes out into the real world and sees it for themselves, then all I can say to the crime reduction minister is: Be afraid, be very afraid!

Colin Henson,

Moorcroft Road,

Woodthorpe, York.

...AS a resident of Ambrose Street and regular user of New Walk, I was concerned to read of the mugging which took place on the steps leading down from my street to the River Ouse (January 14).

These steps have been unlit since the Millennium Bridge "landscaping", when a perfectly adequate lamp was removed. Since then, myself and other local residents have asked City of York Council to provide a light to protect against a crime of this nature or someone falling down the steps.

Although a lamp pole did appear near the top of the steps, it was removed because a local resident objected.

Maybe now all concerned will realise how dangerous these steps are, and will do something before further serious incidents occur. In fact, perhaps the architects of this project and local planners would themselves like to negotiate these steps on a dark icy night.

John Bullock,

Ambrose Street,

York.

Updated: 10:51 Thursday, January 24, 2002