SIR – On Saturday afternoon I took my son to Fort Royal Park. Near the top, admiring the giraffe, a young family visiting Worcester for the day to see the art trail, pored over a map. I asked which their favourite giraffe was; they said the Roman themed one on Sidbury.

They hadn’t seen the ones in town yet. I asked the father if he knew about the EDL march in the centre and he looked sad. They had seen the police, but hadn’t realised what was happening. It was a bad day to come.

Residents had been told ‘business as usual’, but nobody was under any illusion; this was not usual.

As parents of a two-year-old, living near Wylds Lane, we got our supplies in the morning, then avoided the town centre.

Our decision was totally vindicated; how could we subject our son to the vile language and posturing of the provoking EDL, or the inevitable outrage they caused?

How could we explain the anger to him, or why his hometown, where he learned to walk, normally so full of excitement, was suddenly a threatening place?

In the last week people have made a lot of the right of the EDL to protest, but that freedom has to be weighed against the freedom of others and, above all other freedoms, is the right to the quiet enjoyment of the peace.

Tom Amos

Worcester