LEAVING the office the other night I bumped into what can only be described as a gang of children wandering around the Boulevard in Blackburn.

All were in some form of fancy dress and the oldest among them could only have been about 12.

With the clocks having gone back, it was pitch black and there wasn't an adult in sight.

What were their parents thinking of? Did they know or even care that these young and vulnerable children were roaming the streets of Blackburn?

Sadly the scene will be repeated all over East Lancashire for the next couple of days as our increasing obsession with Hallowe'en takes over.

So what is Hallowe'en? Basically it's an excuse for young urchins to ring on your bell wearing cheap scary masks demanding sweets with menaces.

Very often these gangs are unsupervised and left to roam late into the night and in many cases their 'victims' are the elderly.

This so-called 'trick or treating' should be outlawed. Any children found wandering the streets should be rounded up, bunged in the back of a police van and taken straight home.

Then their parents should be lectured on the meaning of responsibility and given an official warning.

Harsh? I don't think so.

Why do we need to ape some hugely commercial American event which merely serves to put our children at risk and to frighten the elderly and vulnerable?

Hallowe'en -- just ban it.