At first I thought that your correspondent Alan Simpson's complaint about Stow Fair, Journal, May 19, was a record of Friday night in Evesham town centre. You know - music blaring out everywhere, cars buzzing about, loads of youngsters having a great time. Except of course that it would be great to have the good citizens of the Vale, (un-travelled though they may be) to get their dogs to deposit their excrement as he so delicately puts it, in some hedgerows.

A better idea than on the pavement, where it is splattered around on our shoes, or via the wheels of prams and the hands of wheelchair users.

Stow Fair is a stupendous event, no different from other similar gatherings, such as steam rallies, flower shows or Cheltenham races, for the disturbance they cause to local people. Except that it has been around longer than most and celebrates the life and traditions of a group of people who were once the mainstay of the local economy at harvest time.

Don't knock the gipsies and their fabulous fair, please.

Okay, so they have a lifestyle unique to themselves and we can give hearty thanks for that fact. We need to be celebrating, not castigating.

As for crime, the gipsies seem to have cracked the problem of the 'horrible' hoodie wearers, judging from your picture on page 16 of the Journal - attach 'em by a rope to a great carthorse.

Kenneth Clarke take note, t'would give the Horse Guards some useful targets to achieve.

Michael Parker, Main Street, Sedgeberrow.