SIR – Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement in 1908, said that Scouting is the practice of teaching the young to become good citizens and leaders.

He must have turned in his grave when police told Scout groups in Bradford they could no longer oversee their St George’s Day parade for free because of Government cuts.

With no funds to pay a private company to do the job, this year’s event could be their last (T&A, April 20).

I am at a loss to understand the logic of a Government which spends a fortune trying to rehabilitate wrong-doers, many of whom re-offend, yet reduces the resources of a public service so severely they can’t afford to marshal, once a year, a parade of proud, upright youngsters who are a credit to the community.

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford