I was really angered to read letters published in the Malvern Gazette (Your Letters, August 16) with regard to the closure of the Avon Close play area.

The letters seem to suggest the reason the play area may be closed is because there is a generational conflict from older people being afraid of anyone under 16. Also a suggestion there is a strange kind of conspiracy by the council to sell the land for profit.

It is not only older people who agree with the playground being sold. I am what these "middle aged people" call a "young person" and have lived in Avon Close all of my life. I have seen first hand what has happened to myself and most neighbours in the surrounding area.

When I was younger I was terrified to sit outside my front door at night because people who use the play area threw stones at my window. They have also dug up signs and thrown them in our drive way. I have witnessed my parents being verbally abused and also have been unable to sleep at night because of hearing laughing, music and screaming in the early hours of the morning (3-4am).

Many solutions have been tried to secure the play area, I believe over 30 years (not so defeatist W Russell) i.e. gates, even a caretaker who comes down in the morning to "clean up the mess" and constant calling out of police, but the problems have carried on.

When Colin Bowden suggests a conspiracy to sell and make a profit by the council, I fear he has either been watching too many late night episodes of the X Files or he is not fully aware of the lengths residents have had to go to, to convince the council that the playground needs to be closed.

I also notice that many of the letters are from people who live quite a distance from the play area. They have no idea what it is like, only bringing their children for a few hours at most. Also if they are quite willing to "drive", seeing many children being dropped off by parents in cars, why not use closer and better facilities in Malvern?

I would have been the last person in the world to want to see the play area closed but the situation has become ridiculous. I see the state the play area is left in every day and frankly I wouldn't want to take my child in there.

Finally I suggest, that any profits made by the council on the sale of the land should be put towards putting a playground in the letter writers back gardens, send a general invite for a party at 3am with free beer and drugs, to see how they feel about having their children being terrified and woken up in the middle of the night and having swear words thrown at them.

C Amphlett, Avon Close, Malvern.