COUNCILLOR Mrs Liverton commented at the town council that: “People in town centres choose to live there for the convenience – you also have to put up with what happens.”

What a defeatist attitude! While I agree that gated areas should only be considered as a last resort, it is totally unacceptable to suggest that the local residents ‘have to put up with it’.

An ex-policeman in East Devon assured me that after World War Two the clear-up rate for crime was 50 per cent in Exeter.

I doubt if it is anywhere near that now. The theft of a bottle of milk from the doorstep was treated as just that: theft.

We need beat policing at least on Friday and Saturday nights to prevent this disgusting behaviour.

Bill Bratton, the New York cop who cleaned up the city decades ago, did it by the “broken windows” policy – ie concentrate on the petty crime at the bottom with more police on the streets. It worked: NY is now one of the safest cities on earth.

We have plenty of police, but we need their presence on the streets.

Lawrie Brownlee

Station Road

Sidmouth