YES, I do support the call for tougher sentences to be given to anyone who attempts to hinder the brave firefighters in their very difficult work.

I remember to this day my uncle, a young man, being killed while answering a false call near the Palladium cinema in Bridge Street. He was only in his 30s, and left a widow and child of about 10 years of age.

My mother would have had little time for the kind of justice metered out these days.

She thought the hose should be turned on the miscreants, football hooligans should have their foreheads painted with indelible ink, and young vandals, too, for easy recognition, and anyone causing the fire engines to turn out without justification ought to be placed in a prominent position in the old stocks for the incensed public to pelt. Human Rights and Health & Safety would have caused her to explode with wrath.

At 81, I can see her longing to be on the bench. I think Fred Shawcross would have enjoyed a laugh or two at her remedies.

Mrs J Foster Moor Lane Bolton