Dear editor - May I reply to last week's 'Skateboarders are a menace' letter. Skateboarders and child cyclists who ride on pedestrian areas are not being encouraged by their parents and the law to use the designated areas like Sanders Park.

They are usually bored and they are not being helped by their senior generations.

Skateboarders appeared on our church car park during the evening services. It was a problem. But some leaders of the church met in a friendly way with the skateboarders, befriended them and offered them a meal every Sunday evening with discussions about Christianity.

Something positive is being done for the skateboarders, who are showing a real interest in Christian matters that they now discuss with the church leaders.

Let us be careful not to confront these children but let us befriend them.

Max Harper,

Shaw Lane, Stoke Prior.