IN your article “Police lecture underage foreign students drinking in South Park”, August 7, you report that 47 such teenagers were caught in that zone thus imbibing and officers confiscated – rather than the usually preferred “seized” – 49 cans of beer and cider, two bottles of vodka and one of whisky.

Almost in passing, you mention the operation occurred following three weeks of complaints from residents in the St Clement’s area. What a shame that the police’s mathematical prowess and precision is not invariably matched by their sense of urgency and, even then, they seemed more concerned about the visitors’ well-being than that of the aggrieved, with no consequent cautions nor arrests occurring (not that public drinking ‘per se’ is a criminal offence, as they finally seemed to have grasped).

I fancy they may have been somewhat speedier and stricter if the inebriated, of any age, had been members of the local population – or maybe they would not.

David Diment, Riverside Court, Oxford

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