I have become very alarmed by the recent spate of bad news stories featured in your paper.

It cannot be that such doom and gloom abounds in a place as colourful as Croydon, home to the Hamsey Green Pond and the Bramley Bank Nature Reserve.

Every day on my walks I see new flowers blooming and squirrels making a merry dance.

And yet none of this is reflected in your news coverage, that I, and many others, feel lacks balance due to a dearth of nature stories.

If I could offer a friendly word of advice it would be to send a reporter down to the Addington Hills to report on the flora and bug inhabitants who make it such a lively part of the borough.

Not all of us are obsessed by the egregious gangsters and criminals who have come to dominate the front pages.

Sort it out.

GRAHAM SMITHEE
by email