REGARDING the remarks of Mr E Duxbury (Letters, July 4), I am, of course, aware of the existence of the Bank Top Community Association in Blackburn. Their efforts, as far as they go, are welcome.

But don't these people think progress has been a bit slow where facilities for children and youths are concerned? We have nothing for our hard-found council tax.

As for meeting our councillors, they are, I am sure, aware of my views, but I am happy to go through it all again.

We need playgrounds for our kids. We need football areas and cricket areas for the older children. We need the filthy back streets clearing.

We need our streets policing when we need them. We need the community gardens tending -- they have now gone back to the wild. We need the yobs off the streets.

A trip to Chester Zoo is all well and good, but it doesn't solve any problems in the long term.

We are about to go through another six weeks of school holiday hell -- just 12 months after we were told play areas were "on the way."

Asian and white youths and children are happy in this area playing football and cricket together which is why we should give them the means to build on this by providing the play areas -- at the moment, they only have the streets.

SAM SPENCE, Ribblesdale Place, Blackburn.