There are a group of youngsters in Worthing hell-bent on smashing the place up, regardless of whether the schools are on holiday or not.

According to people in and around the town, it is now reaching crisis point and something drastic needs to be done.

Perhaps now is the time for the ruling Liberal Democrat group on the borough council to take the bull by the horns and become a ground-breaking local authority.

Why doesn't council leader Sheila Player look at the possibility of invoking a curfew for youngsters?

A local by-law could be introduced that says anyone under the age of 16 has to be accompanied by a responsible adult outside home between certain times. If the curfew is broken, the parents or guardians of the child would have to pay an on-the-spot fine of £50.

It may sound a bit extreme but I'll wager if certain parents had to start being accountable for their children's whereabouts at night, a lot of the vandalism and juvenile crime would all but disappear.

Obviously there would have to be special dispensation for youngsters who take part in legitimate evening activities, such as Scouts and Guides, but these aren't the sort of kids who smash up bus shelters and cemeteries anyway.

The do-gooders will probably throw up their hands in horror, saying such a move would be an infringement of civil liberties, but as far as I'm concerned the kind of kids who are causing the trouble give up their right to civil liberties the first time they break a window or spray paint on a wall.

And how would the do-gooders feel if one of these youths attacked their property?

Desperate times call for desperate measures and this country needs the local authority to stand up and be counted.

If the scales of justice actually work in the town's favour for once, I would also hope the Press, and that includes this publication, moves heaven and earth to name and shame the culprits, even going as far as printing photographs.

That would be a high-profile deterrent.

I took my son to see the latest Disney offering, Treasure Planet, at the Dome last week.

As enjoyable as the film was, and for all the character the legendary picture house has, it is clear the seafront cinema is not the place I would like to watch films in Worthing in the 21st Century.

As regards the Teville Gate saga, I don't know how much significance can be read into the closure of one of Worthing's finest fast food outlets, Flemings, but I understand all is not lost.

There are people within the council who know how essential it is for the town to have a multiplex cinema and, although talks about it are still in the early stages, at least they are happening.

We might yet see a cinema complex in Worthing before the start of the 22nd Century!