It was nice to read a letter from a former landlord of the Downs Hotel, Tom Chilton (February 18), saying the policing of Woodingdean of 50 years ago was the same then and he remembered phoning for police assistance but got none as they were all at the races.

I remember Woodingdean being policed a lot more then, there being two police houses in The Ridgway, two more at the bottom of Shipley Road and each pair with a police box. There was also a police box at the Downs Hotel.

We are now being patrolled regularly and have our very own community beat officer, PC Kevin Michnowicz.

I am sure, however, there would be more of a police presence everywhere if the police were not handcuffed to their office desks for 50 per cent of their working day sorting out the mountains of unnecessary paperwork the Government imposes on them in the of name bureaucracy.

-Geoff Wells, Woodingdean ward councillor