I FEEL I must respond to the article, “11-day alcohol selling ban given to shop” (November 7).

This shop had been caught not just once, but three times over the year, and still this wasn’t good enough, but they were handed an 11-day ban and told to adhere to the under-25 challenge.

Well, I say why even bother, as this was a complete waste of taxpayers’ money. They may as well have just said, “carry on, we forgive you, but don’t let it happen again”.

Then we have Cllr Hilary Fairclough, who went on to say “we take this very seriously and have a duty to the public to demonstrate we are taking these issues very seriously”.

Can I just get my head around this — at what point did she take this seriously, and at what point did she demonstrate the duty to the public in this very important decision for the good people of Bolton?

The owners thought the decision was quite fair, and know well that it could have been a lot worse.

A few days later and what do we see? A porn shop selling without a licence and he gets a £4,000 fine. Is our town to be disrespected in this manner or is there going to be severe action taken?

Maybe this committee should be run by members of the public as I’m sure the job would get better results than this.

William Gallagher, Astley Bridge, Bolton