I AM afraid Councillor Gavin Smithers is quite mistaken (Letters, January 17) that we are letting our young people down by offering them contraception advice from school nurses and emergency contraception from pharmacists free of charge in addition to the usual providers of contraception.

This can only help them.

He is also mistaken in his opinion that this Government is at fault.

The rate of teenage pregnancy in Britain has been at a high level, and increasing for many years, while the rate in the rest of Europe has been dropping.

Young people develop earlier and are likely to become sexually active at a younger age, despite what our laws say.

In the Netherlands, a much more liberal society than our own, young people have good sex and relationship education and there is good evidence to show teenagers there have first intercourse at an older age than in the UK - and they are much more likely to use effective contraception from the start.

In the meantime, while our youth who are still not as aware as I would like them to be about their sexual health, should at least be offered emergency contraception when they need it - at the same time being educated about future contraception.

This is not to say that I think young teenagers should be having sex but if they do, they need as much support as possible.

Gillian R. Cooper MB ChB Chairman Sub-committee on Teenage Sexual Health of Redditch Health Improvement Programme

Pound House

The Square

Feckenham