Here's a good news story for you david_carnell... I grew up in the New Forest, cycling everywhere once I joined secondary school, mostly to the local riding stables every weekend (about 3 miles away), where rain or shine we spent the whole weekend hanging out with the horses, riding in the forest unsupervised by adults, taking the ponies to the beach, poo fights and the occasional attempt at smoking. We were however 3 girls, goody two shoes and only got waylaid occasionally to go shop lifting at the local corner shop for ice creams and Easter Eggs! Once we hit 16 and wanted to venture further afield to discos we were fortunate enough to have a reliable train service, a very accommodating friends father who collected us and a friend of my mum who was a taxi driver! Yes, there was the odd teenage pregnancy, rival school gangs and I'm sure drugs were part of some people's life but generally it was all pretty harmless. Yes, I did get some teasing being mixed race in a very white community but I also had a strong circle of friends. Having now lived in London since 1999 and venturing back fairly often to visit family I'm very content to be bringing up our 5 year old here and don't see us moving out for the immediate future.