Quote from the police: "Call us while the conmen are there and we will come and check them out."

What a load of rubbish. It is widely felt the police do not bother with calls to report a problem - their answer is always: "We'll send a man along as soon as we have one spare".

I attended a police conference as a member of the public in October 2003 in Lewes and the subject of the police not responding to domestic calls was brought up by the chairman, with the chief of police saying he would look into it. Good for him.

Yet strangely, when I rang the police just two weeks ago to report a

door-to-door caller who was pretending to not speak English and who showed the reverse of his card which said "Any offers of money would be very much appreciated", I was told they hadn't anyone free at the moment but... well, you know the rest - and I am still waiting.

I wonder whatever happened to the old days when we had a resident policeman in Henfield?

-R Metson, Henfield