It’s common sense to invest in police

Dear Sir,

With reference to your editorial on policing in Congleton, you make the connection between austerity and the rise in anti-social behaviour.

It is common sense that when people have less money in their pocket, the need for policing rises, not falls.

Policing, like investment, is one of those costs that becomes more important just when there is not enough money to go around.

Education and good parenting play a part, but poverty breeds disorderly behaviour like recession breeds a need for innovation.

It shows a dismal understanding of society that allows funding for our police to be reduced when the need for it can be predicted to increase.

Any successful business knows that it cannot forgo on investment just when it has less money to spend on it.

Yours faithfully,

(DR) PETER HIRST

Middlewich