Please can I ask one thing of the parents of the small minority of children (and it is a small minority of, I suspect, non-residents' children) who are mindlessly and systematically destroying the play area on the Greenfields development in Darwen: Please spend less time in the boozer or in front of the television and instead use the time to assert your parental responsibilities on these future ASBO nominees?

The rubber play surface has been ripped up, thus rendering it unusable by the residents with young children who would like to use the facility.

And whilst we're about it, can the bright spark at the council who insisted, despite local opposition in the form of a petition, that this potential vandal magnet must be built on our development please explain why numerous e-mails regarding the issue have been ignored.

MR L PICKERING, Northumberland Close, Darwen