WITH reference to goths and moshers hanging around Church Street on Saturday afternoons, I would firstly like to applaud the police in their sensitive and sensible approach to this so-called problem.

I go through Church Street quite regularly on a Saturday afternoon with my two small children and I have never felt in the least bit intimidated.

In fact, I am rarely ever even noticed by these youths who, after all, just want to hang around with their peers.

The times when I have had contact with any of them, they have been nothing but polite and friendly, (and they spoke very articulately, incidentally. No grunts or groans). One girl and boy last week actually spent time talking and laughing with my little boy.

If any of them cause trouble then, yes, they need to be dealt with but, so far, I have seen no evidence of this. I do realise that some members of our society will feel intimidated by their large numbers and "strange" appearance and so will avoid the area, which, of course, is unfair as the newly renovated Church Street belongs to all of us. So come on people. Write in with your ideas for a solution which will suit the majority.

Most of the kids who hang around there are what I call 'inbetweenies,' i.e., too old for children's recreational facilities and too young for the clubs and pubs. Maybe our council should seriously think about investing in this ignored or frowned-upon age group. Build them a skate-park perhaps, with facilities such as a cafe with music and refreshments etc.

They just need somewhere where they can hang-out with their peers in a safe environment. After all, they are as much a member of society as the rest of us.

VALERIE GARDENER, Gib Lane, Livesey, Blackburn.

EDITOR'S FOOTNOTE : In our Opinion column on Tuesday we said that the council and police had singularly failed to tackle the problem of groups gathering INSIDE the shopping centre on Saturdays and called for robust action to be taken. We also stressed that there was no suggestion that goths or moshers were malevolent"or violent in any way but only that some shoppers found such a large group of them congregating in Church Street intimidating .