YOUR article (Gazette, January 8) featuring Sergeant Andy Peach has prompted me to write. We are being urged to do more to help the police and certainly they need some help.

The week before we read about a man saved by his friends in an unwarranted attack outside the kebab shop in Devizes in the early hours of the morning.

They possibly saved his life and took him all the way to the Royal United Hospital in Bath to be stitched up.

Difficulties in obtaining a satisfactory response from Devizes Police Station has prompted other agencies in the town to advise turning up in person at the police station in order to guarantee a response.

What signal is this giving out? Your article quotes a resident trying to report vandalism in the Market Place being told the police were too busy.

The truth is that they are very much undermanned and they need help but not only help from the public.

The police and businesses in the town need help and support from Kennet District Council in the form of CCTV.

The earlier report in The Spectator caused uproar but probably because it was too close for comfort. Unless action is taken now the town will be sacrificed.

For my part, my grown up children feel safer spending Saturday evenings in Salisbury than Devizes because of the police presence.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED