I TAKE exception to your comments about Karen Warwick as a 'Neighbour from hell' (March 25).

As often is the case with single mums bringing up children, it's more of a case of a neighbour in hell. Karen Warwick is no different to every caring parent in this country. If she thinks her children are being put upon, she defends them. Her children are well clothed and cared for. She is a good mother, one lacking many of the basic social skills and education to equip her for the rigours of life.

If she were middle-class and intellectual, she would be regarded as a feisty lady - and she is. As for her dog, Roly, it's a menace; it should have been removed from that house years ago for training.

All the authorities can do is impose a £550 fine on a woman who could ill-afford the basic staples of life, and all because her dog attacked a former Lord Mayor of York.

Councillor Ann Reid,

George Mapplebeck,

Grove View, Clifton, York.

Updated: 10:21 Wednesday, March 31, 2004