SIR, — This is my first ever letter to a newspaper. I read with horror and dismay your article on the banning of football in the playground at Wood End School for heath and safety reasons (Herts Advertiser, March 26). What nonsense. My family have a long

SIR, - This is my first ever letter to a newspaper. I read with horror and dismay your article on the banning of football in the playground at Wood End School for heath and safety reasons (Herts Advertiser, March 26). What nonsense.

My family have a long association with the school. My sister attended the school from its opening day and my father was the PTA treasurer for many years. To this day I am the school's biggest accident, impaling myself on a temporary fence in the playground I was climbing to retrieve a lost football.

Football in the playground brings back nothing but fond memories and has helped shape my life in many ways.

From myself and my equally-dismayed father, a simple message: Let the children play.

MARTIN HANNAH,

Damson Way, St Albans.