Sir.-Reading the numerous letters concerning the new law enabling police to disperse groups of youths.

The subsequent response by some of those youths and their parents has prompted me to write the following open letter:

"Dear parents:

"I'm sorry no-one told you when you gave birth to your children, but your children are just that - yours. The upbringing of your children is not a community project. If they are bored or (really) have nothing to do, it is YOUR job to entertain them.

"What on earth makes you think the rest of us want a group of 10 or so loud, rude, mouthy, shrieking, screaming, stroppy teenagers wandering around otherwise quiet housing estates, playing on equipment meant for little ones, drinking cheap beer and cider and littering all around with cigarette ends.

"We don't want to have to step over their bicycles or skateboards when we get to shop doorways. We don't want to have to ask a group of them to excuse us (please) when they are crowded around a shop doorway, just in case we invoke a tirade of verbal abuse from the over-inflated sense of self-importance many teens have today.

"We don't want to be crashed into when two or three of them decide to play chase and not look where they are running.

"Let's face it, you have no idea how your teens are behaving when you let them out to roam the streets in the evenings. Do you even care?

"In Basingstoke we have two large cinema complexes, a bowling alley, an ice rink, an aqua centre, a sports centre and cadet groups etc. Please make use of them.

"Alternatively, you could always invite your teenager's gang around to hang-out in your own back gardens, with their skateboards and bikes, buy them a few bottles of alcohol, a couple of packets of cigarettes and cans of spray paint, then sit back and watch (and listen to) what the rest of us have to put up with night after night."

-Fed Up, Basingstoke.

Sir.-As the mother of two teenagers, I read with interest the replies to Daniel Burrows letter and had to smile at some of them.

The general consensus seems to be "We never had all the luxuries the kids have today so they ought to be grateful for what they have and shut up moaning".

It would do the writers good, however, to remember that these children are a product of our society today, a society where you cannot let them out to play any more for fear of what could happen to them. Most, therefore, have been encouraged to stay at home and most parents have worked damned hard to provide them with computers etc.

What our kids haven't had, sadly, is our time, as most of them have families whose parents both work in order to be able to survive in this expensive world. They now want to be able to go out and meet their friends and learn to communicate on a social basis.

As for the writer who supplied a long list of activities, they have no idea just what it costs to go to these places. It isn't just sixpence needed anymore - it's more like £10 a go.

What the kids need is somewhere to meet up. We parents are tax-payers too and have probably seen little of it used to our benefit.

So please put your complaints to good use and rally for somewhere for the youngsters to go. Try to remember you were a teenager once.

-Name and address withheld.

Sir.-Letters in The Gazette about the youth issue have infuriated me.

Some of these people come out of the woodwork for political gain. Think how much work the council, people and The Gazette have put into the youth of Basingstoke over the last few years.

Yes, we have problems to address.

I talk to a lot of young people in my area and they all say they have nothing to do in the holidays or at weekends.

I am annoyed at those who refer to just the more affluent areas, not the town as a whole. If the youths from my area want to go to the sports centre, they could only afford this maybe once a week, if they're lucky.

The council, in partnership with local businesses, is addressing this and I personally have been involved with some of the consultations.

Rome was not built in a day. The youth committees are getting around to all of the issues for making good and sensible provisions for the youth of our town.

These youngsters are our future.

So anyone trying to score points should be ashamed of themselves. Give our youth and councillors a chance and they will get there.

-George Potten, Dryden Close, Popley, Basingstoke.