THE story in Thursday's Bolton Evening News (Sept 30), "Shelter vandals are the worst in Europe", quite frankly, appalled me.

The smashing of these bus shelters by yobs around the Bolton area has been allowed to go on unchecked for far too long. I'm a bus user myself, but in an age when traffic congestion is a scourge, it's hardly an inducement for people to leave the car at home and use the buses when they have to stand around waiting in a load of broken glass and not being sheltered from the elements.

Also, it's a dreadful advert for any visitors to our area when they see the ugly sight of a vandalised bus shelter every few hundred yards.

You quote Cllr Nick Peel, who sits on the board of GMPTE and who is understandably most concerned -- but where is the quote from Greater Manchester Police? In other words, what are they going to do about it, and when?

This is not a public transport issue -- it's an issue for the society and community in which we live, and one which contributes to the continual degeneration and decline of our urban environment. It's got to be stopped.

It's time for zero tolerance to be adopted -- NOW!

Keith Hacking

Widford Walk

Blackrod

SHATTERED: Pavements covered with glass deter people from using public transport