While I agree with Bob Booth, a trustee of The Hillcrest Community Centre, that the youths responsible for breaking into the centre last week must have a low opinion of themselves, his assertion that such appalling behaviour stems from their being bored because "there is nothing for them to do in Newhaven" is a feeble attempt to excuse their anti-social behaviour.

Is there any evidence that shows a link between vandalism and a lack of municipal facilities?

There are numerous local clubs, good recreation ground facilities and the big city is only a short bus ride away.

What we have to ask is why certain youths seem bent on destroying our town?

If it was as simple as a lack of facilities, all of our teenagers would be running riot. But they are not. It is only a tiny minority of adolescents that blight the town, usually as a result of poor parenting.

Any parent can have a difficult child but it is the way you deal with that child that determines what happens next.

Please, Mr. Booth, don't blame the community for not providing facilities to occupy these bored minds. They smash up the facilities that do exist, make our lives a misery and waste hundreds if not thousands of hours of police time. It is their fault they are doing this, not ours.

-Henry Page, Newhaven