AS a parent of one of the registered users of the RampAge skate park in Orchard Street, Worcester, permit me to congratulate members of the city council in their positive attitude to the park.

First, the owners were instructed to install soundproofing at the rear at a cost of £7,000. Now the council is demanding soundproofing of the frontage on Orchard Street.

Despite sound-proofing, the council has been sensible in forbidding RampAge to remain open on Sundays, a non-school day and potentially the park's busiest.

These decisions will make the park uneconomic. We parents will then sleep in peace - because we have lived for the past year in fear of the park as a centre of juvenile criminality.

That our fear is reasonable can be verified by any adult with the courage to visit RampAge. Every one of the skaters has either aggressively short hair or aggressively long hair. They wear the uniform of aggression - helmets, elbow pads and knee pads.

Worse, they develop awesome physical co-ordination that will enable them to evade the police.

Terrorised by our children, we parents have pandered to their anti-social inclinations for too long in permitting them to skulk indoors at Orchard Street.

We must now hope that the council will turn its attention to further hubs of youth activity, perhaps in alliance with county and parish councils.

S HORNYOLD,

Colwall,

Worcs.