How low can people sink?

This was a major blow to the Scouts from which, despite the generous fund-raising efforts of local businesses, the movement will struggle to recover.

But, already, unscrupulous people are seeking to cash in on the Scouts' misfortune by attempting to con householders with a door-to-door collection in "aid" of the headquarters renewal fund.

This without uniform or a shred of identification and despite the fact that a doorstep collection does not form part of the official Scout fund-raising programme...!

It beggars belief that anyone - no matter how intellectually challenged - could attempt something so mean-spirited or so transparently dishonest.

Another measure of the parlous state to which Bexhill has descended might well be the life-span of the globes on the Colonnade lights.

Like Egerton Park - and any cars parked within easy walking distance of the mindless louts who desecrate it at night - the Colonnade is the victim of repeat vandalism on a scale which has become increasingly unacceptable.

The Colonnade situation has got to the point where replacement globes are smashed almost as soon as they are put in place.

And who pays?

We all do.

Despite the efforts of an idiot minority to plunge us all into a new dark age, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We cannot commend strongly enough the move to be put before Rother cabinet on Monday to designate the town centre a Dispersal Area under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act.

We are suffering anti-social behaviour, disorganised crime, which needs to be stamped out before it gets worse.

The public have demonstrated emphatically that they will not sit back and do nothing in the face of the disturbing spectre of organised crime developing in the town. The string of raids on the cannabis factories which have sprung up in Bexhill is the direct result of observant neighbours tipping-off the police.

This is good work on the part not only of the police but of the public. What is needed is a similar joint approach to vandalism and car crime.

Such partnership working is the best way forward for all.