WE have read in the Bolton Evening News recently some very disturbing reports about the behaviour of local teenagers.

In Tonge Moor, under-age drinkers make life a misery for residents and traders. They laugh at the inadequate efforts of the police to control them and taunt the officers by putting bottles under the wheels of police vehicles, a witness reports.

Last year, in a futile effort to rid Tonge Moor of anti-social yobs, the council bulldozed an entire estate of good properties -- De Lacy Drive. Some years ago they did exactly the same when they flattened the notorious Denvale Avenue estate. Neither demolition jobs has had any effect on the anti-social problems. In fact, things are worse.

Cllr Frank White has the right idea when he talks about evicting the families of these yobs from council properties. But let's get on with it, and let's make sure they do not move in with granny, or anyone else living in council property.

A similar story to that in Tonge Moor was told by shopkeepers in Farnworth, some of whom had been threatened with knives by teenage louts.

Then there was the 18-year-old who has been terrorising the residents of Johnson Fold for two years. Not before time he has been served with an anti-social order. But why should decent people have to suffer for two years before anything positive is done?

But thank goodness for Emma Deighan, the teenager from Westhoughton (Bolton Evening News, February 27). Her profile of the life of a 16-year-old was excellent. How is it possible that teenagers educated and brought up in the same town can differ so vastly?

Brian Derbyshire

Ribchester Grove

Bolton