I read my Evening Press this evening, and then I must have dozed off (May 17).

Pupils of Joseph Rowntree School are going on a trip to Flamingo Land as a reward for not taking part in anti-social behaviour at the end of term.

They are to be joined on the jaunt by Alistair and John of the North Yorkshire Police who are going to show them how to have fun.

What a nice gesture, giving up a day off duty to partake of candy floss and white knuckle rides, great stuff!

Traffic constables are to get two cars each, and the force has coffers that runneth over.

Then I awoke, it was all a dream, North Yorkshire Police still have no money!

So why are two officers going as nursemaids on a school trip - paid for by the taxpayers and leaving an area two men short for a shift.

Pauline Wallis,

Manchester House,

Sheriff Hutton,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.