I NOTICE that police are being withdrawn in the town centre at night on Fridays, the excuse being "the days of having cops on street corners are gone."

This step is doubtless being taken as part of the "cutbacks to tackle the deficit."

None of this would be necessary if the government implemented the following:

1 Revise PCSO roles. On the streets they are useless without powers of arrest so give them am admin role doing paperwork, releasing officers to do their jobs fighting crime.

2 Slash welfare by £20bn. Remove all benefits from the feckless and work shy and those who refuse to look for a job, not to mention cheats and fiddlers. Child allowance should be restricted, discouraging producing large families for the sole purpose of claiming more benefits. Working families with several children should pay less tax.

3 Abolish six government departments. In the days of devolved government, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish offices are not needed as are the ministry of justice. The department of international development. Obligations begin at home Mr Cameron. There is no need for the department for energy and climate change which could come under environment.

4 Save another £40bn by withdrawing from that corrupt, unelected, undemocratic, unaccountable dictatorship, the EU. In time of austerity this is a luxury we can't afford especially since France, Germany and Hungary pick and chose which EU rules to obey.

Moe than 40 years ago we were lied to by Britain's worst ever traitor, Edward Heath and we must get out and use the money saved on police, NHS, schools and infrastructure.

C J Lally

Deane