WHEN the Commonwealth Games in Manchester is set to attract record crowds and numbers of visitors to the city, with the horrendous crime and security problems that this implies in an area with an already high crime rate, is this Government doing enough to fund and support Greater Manchester Police?

Stockport's Liberal Democrat Council leader Cllr Fred Ridley has rightly criticised the government handout towards the cost of policing the Games as inadequate, and "nobody from Chief Constable down thinks this is sufficient."

After the sickening racial riots in Oldham last year, the September 11 terrorist atrocity, and the tragic incidents at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, it clearly makes sense to take up the Liberal Democrats' General Election manifesto policies of funding the police for real increased strength, greater emphasis on frontline policing, and initiating a new Community Safety Force, enabling the police to concentrate on serious crime and security or public order situations.

With the council elections three months away, these are points worth councillors' attention in areas with a disturbing increase in vandalism, burglary, criminal assaults and other common hazards of 21st century life.

Miss Katherine Watson

Rushton Drive

Bramhall, Stockport