This does nothing positive and is merely criminalising youth – the opposite of what most people want.

The police complain about youths being involved in nuisance and street crime, yet when the teenagers take themselves off out of sight and try to keep out of the way, the council and the police won't leave them in peace. This isn't pursuing crime, this is pursuing youth.

There is a problem with a small number of youths (actually not that many) hanging round the streets at night with nowhere to go.

Policing won't solve their problems. Perhaps Social Services should look at why underage children are kicked out of home every night.

But in any case, the answer is an out-reach youth worker, which would only be about one-third of the cost of current increased policing measures.

Instead of tearing dens down, we should be building them – youth huts, with a youth worker to keep everyone safe and out of trouble.

This approach has worked, in Jarrow. Most policemen prefer this approach – they tell me they hate dealing with low level nuisance.

Policing doesn't work. In Cullercoats, where I live, we have youths on our streets from Heaton and Byker. I have taken the trouble to talk to these teenagers – they have fled to Cullercoats because of 'zero tolerance' policing in their own neighbourhoods.

If they stay near home, they are in constant danger of arrest or 'stop and search'. It seems like the same one dozen teenagers, pushed from place to place, are being used to justify increased police budgets in three different areas.

Let's have a new approach – instead of extra policing, it's much cheaper to give these kids a youth hut, a bottle of pop each and someone to look after them, to keep them out of trouble.

If we can't do something positive, it would be better to do nothing at all.

HEATHER McDOUGALL
Percy Avenue, Cullercoats.