Perhaps the article "Let the force be with you" (The Argus, October 14) should have been subtitled "but you can't be with the force".

When the Police Community Consultation Groups initiative was launched ten years ago, it was hailed as a much-needed opportunity for members of the public to meet the police to air their views. Now the police have decided it is not producing results. It seems the problem stems from us - the community - because members of the "whingeing public" actually go to the meetings to air their views.

The police feel the groups fail to address recent legislation which requires more comprehensive consultation with the public so, in future, the public will not be invited.

The Sussex Police Authority wants to set up committees, without public input and chaired by its own members, and the meetings will be

held behind ever-multiplying "closed doors". How this change can be seen as a way of delivering more public consultation rather than less is beyond me.

-Ron Trussell, The Martlets, South Chailey