So, after a negative and unconstructive response by local residents to the skateboarders in Bevendean, the local track-bikers suffer similarly: Lock 'em out; fence 'em off; they make too much noise.

Never mind that these youngsters become even more alienated and will simply ride illegally on the road or wherever else they can find.

Could I suggest efforts be made to find a more constructive solution, as we have tried to do with the skateboarding issue?

We could get the parents of these kids involved in organising a club.

Negotiate an area of the Downs behind Bevendean (as far from habitation as is practical) that the landowner or lessee would be happy to allow the kids to use.

Then give the club management control of access to this area for limited periods to reduce aggravation to neighbours.

Make club membership and adherence to its rules a condition of use with the sanction of withdrawal of membership for breaking rules.

This is surely not beyond the ability of reasonable people.

No doubt many objections may be made to this solution.

It is always easier to put up obstacles to action than to do something positive.

The biggest difficulties I foresee are, first, "backsidecovering" insurance issues, which are always trotted out in these instances to stall any further progress (why cannot membership include a waiver, signed by the member's parent or carer in the case of minors, that makes participation at their own risk?).

Second, the difficulty of persuading some parents to take an active part in the lives of their children instead of simply buying them potentially lethal "toys" and letting them loose on their long-suffering neighbours.

-Vince Wild, Bodiam Close, Brighton