SIR,

Call me old fashioned or even over-sensitive, but when teenage boys threaten and rob 10 year old girls in broad daylight and the authorities seem to treat it in a blasé and matter of fact way, then so be it.

This is exactly what happened to my daughter and her friend on Saturday in the Oldway Centre, Monmouth.

The money they had collected from generous shoppers whilst singing was stolen from their pot with the words: "what are you going to do about it?"

The police were informed who promptly passed the problem on to the culprits' school and informed me that the girls should not have been there without a licence.

Having contacted the One Stop Shop I was informed they do not provide licences as they are not needed for acoustic music.

It seems the police are not only misinformed on entertainment rules but are also rather lax on clamping down on criminality.

The jury is out on a resolution to this event.

Paul Martinez

(Monmouth)