IN response to Ms Ashworth's letter (Guardian, June 27), I would like to relay my own experiences.

I would firstly say that I am the mother of two young children who would one day benefit from a youth club.

Last November while I was watching EastEnders and giving my two-year-old son his bedtime milk there was a loud bang from our hallway which made me fear that someone had thrown a firework through our letterbox.

I found my front door wide open, it having been kicked with such power that the Yale lock had come away from the front door.

If my sons had been in the hallway they could have been badly injured or worse by the metal lock flying through the air or the door itself.

I ran outside and running down the road was a group of about 10 boys and girls aged about 13.

Even though it was early for the youth club to turn out my husband went there to report the matter while I called the police.

He found the club empty apart from the youth workers, who informed my husband that they had sent the children home because of their bad behaviour.

The residents of Elmcroft Avenue could tell you of countless other incidents in a similar vein to the above all of which seem to occur just after 9.30pm when the children leave the youth club.

I am sure that no-one wants to deprive primary school children of this facility but it is not good enough to say that to keep the youth club open we must accommodate these trouble-makers.

I am sure the majority of readers would support the right of people to feel safe and secure in their own homes. Ms Ashworth writes from Elm Hall Gardens but I wander what her attitude would be if the route to and from the club was past her own front door.

MS C. E. CRILLY, Elmcroft Avenue, Wanstead.

July 10, 2002 15:30