EVEN the most apathetic of your readers cannot have failed to notice the growing epidemic that is sweeping through our country faster than fleas in a tramp's vest.

The cost to the British taxpayer is enormous. BSE crisis costs? Peanuts. Foot and mouth compensation payments? Small potatoes.

The number of people and funds being diverted solely to this epidemic is growing year on year -- an industry in itself.

Look around you, folks. Read the papers, including The Citizen. Watch TV. Do you see the vandalism in our towns? Do you see the glass and rubbish littering our streets? Do you read about the muggers, the old people being driven out of their homes, helicopters being used to protect schools?

Have you seen the TV programmes on how the courts deal with these problem offenders? It's like a new series of The Comedians.

I too agree with a reader of The Citizen who, a few months ago, decried the use of death squads on our streets, but I feel that the authorities (all of them) have seriously lost the plot.

The Untouchables (children and teenagers to you and me) roam around our streets well into the small hours, sticking two fingers up at the public, police and the so-called justice system because, as young as they are, they know that there are bigger and more powerful systems backing them.

The laws against child abuse, the laws on civil rights, civil liberties and the rest are, in my opinion, being grossly misused to protect these teeny perpetrators. I am afraid that I must (sadly ) disagree with the reader when he says that a greater police presence is required. Wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling policing is not the answer. The police in most cases know the offenders (often they are on first name terms). The police in most cases arrest the offenders and bring them to the courts.

The courts and the whole justice system is the achilles heel. They have yet to prove to me that they know what the world that most of us live in is all about. Then again, they could be cleverer than we think. A reduction in crime means less for them to do. Would you put yourself out of a very lucrative job and have to work for a living? I think not.

In my opinion we should let the public vote into office at local level the judges and magistrates that they want -- the people who will represent us, the law abiding and tax-paying citizens. Make them accountable to us. No more "jobs for the boys".

R V Schofield,

Howard Close, St Annes.