HAVE the authorities given up on youth nuisance and crime? Both the police and the local council have actively advocated the forming of residents' committees and neighbourhood watch schemes.

The purpose of these is so that everyone works together and that information and questions can be gathered centrally and dealt with in an efficient manner, but is it working?

The vast majority of people I have spoken to living in and around Blackpool town centre believe it is not working. They have witnessed 14-year-old girls being scarred for life with broken glass, old people mugged by children etc... They argue, convincingly, that the authorities are fully aware of who the main troublemakers are but that they are either powerless to do anything or that they just don't care.

Having spoken to teachers, social workers and the police, I cannot accept the accusation that they don't care. The politicians too are very concerned about the apparent escalation of youth nuisance and crime. Why then, if everyone agrees that we have a major problem, is nothing apparently being done about it.

The Government has recently allowed local authorities to impose curfews on under 16s between the hours of 21.00 and 6.00. Whilst this is a step in the right direction, the Government does not appear to have made the resources available to either the police or the local authorities to make this work. Too much emphasis seems to be placed on the criminals' civil rights.

The sad, irrefutable truth is that we simply do not have enough police officers, teachers or social workers for them to be able to do their jobs. The mechanisms are all in place to be able to deal with young offenders but because we don't have the personnel and youth nuisance and crime is not a high priority, they remain as "untouchables".

As a "liberal" politician, the idea of compulsory ID cards and curfews should be an abhorrence. However, the civil rights of the majority must take precedence. If you obey the law what have you to fear? It is time for us all to shout from the rooftops that anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated in Blackpool.

Whether it is children terrorising our old people, drunks urinating in our streets or just plain vandalism, we should say NO! We will not accept it.

I admit that I don't have all the answers but I do have a lot of questions. Perhaps it is time for Blackpool Borough Council to seriously consider forming their own "police" force? At least that way it will be able to react to the needs of Blackpool and not the needs of Lancashire as a whole.

Inevitably, any solutions will involve extra costs either through income tax or council tax. The big question is: Are we prepared to pay in order to make our streets and public areas safe?

Coun Jon Bamborough,

Maitland Avenue, Anchorsholme.