THE issue and deployment of CCTV safety vans by councils seems to be solely based on traffic problems.

Having had many years of experience as a home beat police officer engaged as part of my duties school crossing patrols - before CCTV cameras and later as a juvenile bureau police officer, parent and grandparent - I am fully aware of the dangers imposed on schoolchildren.

However, in recent years with the decline in policing numbers, civilian school crossing patrols were introduced.

This caused a void in everyday contact between police, parents and children, resulting in any matters arising, especially traffic and unsociable behaviour, which could be dealt with at source.

On the darker side, criminal activity by unsavoury characters loitering in the vicinity of schools could be monitored and passed on to other units.

With the advent of CCTV cameras acting not only as a deterrent, the gathering of evidence is paramount in any investigation when contested in a court of law.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York.