TO people of my generation, or for that matter any Northerner over the age of 40, Accrington, Burnley, Bradford and Oldham etc. will always be remembered as small townships inhabited by hardworking, warm and friendly people who after a hard day's work in the textile mills or slipper works knew how to relax and enjoy themselves in any one of various social activities, a tradition which has existed for centuries.

But in recent months this almost idylic background has been destroyed by scenes of street violence and property burning by gangs of youths roaming the streets after dark.The local authorities blame this uncivilized behaviour on social inequalities and racialism.

This may or not be a true analysis of the situation, promising to solve the problem by an official inquiry followed by "regeneration" cash and "social counselling" etc.

But is this a permanent answer to this recurring civil strife, for such scenes are not a new phenomena in Britain? They were first brought to our notice over 20 years ago in the early 1980s, referred to then as the inner city race riots costing the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds to make good the property and social damage which occurred in every major British city.

In retrospect, apparently just new money and social restructuring did not solve the problem for we have had to witness these distressing scenes time after time in subsequent years. Over 20 years is a long time to have the same reccuring social problem so isn't it about time that the government took the matter more seriously and established a Royal Commission dedicated to finding the root cause of such civil disturbances?

This may involve casting aside some of the basic rules of "political correctness" and facing up to reality but, so what, if the end result allows our towns and cities to return to something like normality on a permanent basis. Or are the powers that be just going to make loud noises of disapproval, repair the physical damage and hope that the problem will simply go away, as they have done many times before in the past?

Jon Aylmer-Smith, Riversleigh Ave, Lytham.