The police wrecked a peaceful party. Hundreds of young revellers were pointlessly displaced from a beachside location, where they had been harmlessly enjoying a dance on the first warm Saturday night of the year.

Unsurprisingly, the resourceful ravers sought an alternative location to satiate their natural urge to welcome the dawn.

Sadly, these townspeople were quite ignorant of the threat of foot-and-mouth and may inadvertently have endangered the lives of farm animals by improvising an alternative site on the Downs (Argus, May 14).

A party spokesperson said: "It would have been far more constructive had the police encouraged the Shoreham event to take the pressure off the countryside."

-Laurence Dickie, St Michael's Place, Brighton