WHILE I agree with most of what Bill Collison says in his recent letter on the way the Government has misspent our money, I must argue with his views on financing the police force.

Getting paid for results is, in most cases, a fair system.

However, there are many areas where this policy can be dangerous and should not be adopted.

The police force is one such area.

The system would be open to abuse. We've all seen the TV programmes where the cops arrest the villain simply because he's a villain, and they are under pressure to make an arrest.

If the police were paid by results, this kind of temptation could be hard to resist for some over ambitious or unscrupulous officers.

There are many such temptations.

The police are under enough pressure these days.

In fact, they just can't win. When they do catch the crooks, the courts let most of them go with a smacked wrist.

Maybe if the villains got what they deserved and maybe if we adopted the zero tolerance system, and the three strikes and you're out policy, the police would perhaps have more of an incentive to get better results.

And Bill -- good luck in your fight to save Singing Clough.

Brian Derbyshire

Ribchester Grove

Bolton