WENDY Barker and Tracey Cunningham are children's champions. They should be cherished and supported by York youth services. Instead the council has treated the women shabbily.

The pair set up Molys Kitchen because, in Wendy's words at the time, "we had a lot of complaints saying there were too many kids hanging around causing trouble". It is a familiar complaint. Most people just moan about the problem. Wendy and Tracey set up a youth club.

They have been running it ever since, investing countless hours of their own time to give the young residents of Dringhouses, Woodthorpe and Acomb Park a safe place to meet and relax.

Now all that good work has been undone by a council which has got its priorities back to front.

When a large group of older teenagers gatecrashed Molys Kitchen, shouting abuse and smashing property, it must have been frightening. The two women's first reaction was the right one: to protect the younger children.

The teenagers were told to leave. They did not. Wendy grabbed a ringleader's coat and marched him out of the door. The incident was immediately reported to the police, and when the gang returned and smashed the centre's windows it only emphasised the violent threat they posed.

The council's youth services should be praising Wendy and Tracey for coping with a nasty confrontation. But they have suspended the pair, saying they reacted "in an entirely inappropriate way". What nonsense.

Understandably, the women have quit in anger at their treatment. That means the decent young people lose their youth club and the thugs win the day. We hope the council can overcome its politically correct timidity, show some belated courage, and reinstate the women with an unconditional apology.

It is the least they deserve.

Updated: 10:05 Friday, December 19, 2003