THE staff at Monkton Road Stores, in York, were perfectly within their rights to refuse to serve Lorraine Robinson while she was wearing a hood - whatever the type, material, cost of it etc - or whatever her age (Shops ban on hoodie nurse, The Press, November 14).

Hooded people (not just teenagers) have caused havoc both in shops and areas of York and elsewhere, and troublemakers have conveniently protected their identity by wearing coats with hoods (eg the recent havoc of tyre damage to cars in the Burton Stone Lane area).

What was the problem in the health care assistant turning her hood down as she entered the shop - and then replacing it as she went back into the cold outside?

I have two cardigan-type lambswool coats with hoods and would happily turn the hoods down if it helped.

We all have a responsibility to try and help our conscientious, very vulnerable shopkeepers today, and Mrs Robinson should be ashamed of herself for refusing to comply and taking her story to The Press for sympathy.

Is it any wonder that yobs rule?

Bryan R Lawson, Burtonfields Road, Stamford Bridge, York.