Letter to The Guardian about 'Mosquito' devices.

12.00.00pm GMT Tue 26th Feb 2008

Sarah has written to The Guardian to explain her dissatisfaction at the use of 'mosquito' devices which are increasingly being used to disperse young people. Sarah said:

Dear Sir,

Let's hear it for Rowan Williams! Unlike in his academic-gone-wrong musings about sharia law, which were tinged with what could in his own words tactfully be called 'unclarity', his remarks on attitudes to teenagers (Guardian, Feb 26th) are spot-on.

If the targets of 'Mosquito' dispersal devices were female, black, Asian, gay or disabled, we would be hearing a lot about breaches of anti-discrimination law. Come to think of it, have I failed to notice a huge outcry from Trevor Phillips and his Equalities and Human Rights Commission? I am delighted that the civil liberties organisation Liberty (and I declare an interest as a member of its Council) has joined with the Children's Rights Commissioner to campaign against them.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is also right in his wider point about neglect of our public spaces. My own feeling, based on 8 years as a local councillor, is that traditionally those officials in charge were essentially trained as road traffic engineers focused on throughput of vehicles and had little awareness of the importance of design or aesthetics or much sympathy for pedestrians.

Maybe that is changing, but until we understand the concept of 'zero tolerance' to mean a refusal to put up with poor maintenance, repair and policing rather than intolerance towards groups of people, the shabby treatment of youngsters will endure.

Yours sincerely,

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP

(Letter unpublished)