WITH regards to W. Barker's letter (February 15), the problem with nuisance youths is that there is no discipline any more. They have no respect for authority or people's property, and when you take them to task all you get is abuse.

There is no longer the discipline in schools or in many homes. Growing up in 1950s Liverpool wasn't a picnic and we got up to mischief, but nowhere on the scale of today. Because at the end of the day you answered to your father, schools still had the cane for wrongdoers who never went back for seconds!

The reason local woods are out of bounds and play parks have fences round them is exactly as I have stated earlier. The police should introduce zero-tolerance, which has worked in other areas. Gangs of youths drinking on the streets and destroying property should not be tolerated, just because the poor little mites have nothing to do.

These days some parents can't be bothered to find out where their children are, and that combined with little or no discipline at home is a very dangerous combination.

Colin Henson,

Moorcroft Road,

Woodthorpe, York.

Updated: 11:16 Wednesday, February 20, 2002