YOU have quoted me in three consecutive editions of your paper, mostly accurately enough, about the bail hostel in Boroughbridge Road, York, but your report on Tuesday misrepresents my position.

I did not say we thought the change from being just a bail hostel would not be "such a big deal".

I said we did not regard it as big an issue as the Evening Press had been making of it.

This is because we know the hostel is well run and its residents are carefully assessed, properly managed and represent no more risk than when it was a bail-only hostel.

I have to say that the editorial of the same date is unfair too.

It criticises the probation service for trying to "slip out the news quietly".

It does not mention the meeting we had with York MP Hugh Bailey and councillors to inform them, nor that the change was discussed at three of the meetings with local residents which we have been having since 1993.

Neither does the editorial say the change came about because of an Act of Parliament, which relates to every probation hostel in every city in the country, making them all the same.

In addition to the meetings with the MP, councillors and local residents, we met the police to discuss the change.

No one at these meetings suggested we should make a public declaration, which would alarm and worry people unnecessarily.

M B Murphy,

Assistant Chief Probation Officer,

(Policy and County Services),

National Probation Service,

Northallerton.

Updated: 12:39 Friday, September 13, 2002