SIR - Regarding the letter from Mr Anthony Rhodes, "Stop these Louts" (T&A, May 18), according to the Collins dictionary the definition of a lout is "a crude, oafish person".

The letter complains about a crowd of 50, year 11 children who were walking through Myrtle Park, Bingley, some carrying alcohol.

These were a group of young people who had every right to celebrate their year 11 "leaving do". My 16-year-old grandson was one of them.

The majority have spent the last two years working extremely hard and are now in the process of taking their GCSE exams.

They are under a lot of pressure at this stage and deserve to have some well-earned fun and be able to let off steam.

Due to the vast amount of new housing in the area, open spaces previously used for recreation purposes have vanished.

It can be reasonably assumed that if the police attended for only ten minutes they must have assessed the situation and realised no harm was being done.

Not all of them were louts - my grandson stayed briefly before going to his evening job through which he hopes to fund himself through sixth form college over the next two years.

Mrs Margaret Whitton, Woodside View, Cottingley