I THINK that the douce and upright denizens of Lenzie will stand affronted by the suggestions made by Patricia Fort (Letters, February 20) that they could be responsible for the plethora of empty Buckfast bottles apparently to be found at the side of the road between Lenzie and Stepps.

Many such residents will have had to go and lie down in a darkened room faced with the suggestion that individuals from East Dunbartonshire, regularly recognised as one of the most desirable places in the UK to live, are consuming in large quantities bottles of "wreck the hoose juice", "commotion lotion", and bottles of "what the hell are you looking at" and disposing of the resultant empties in such an anti-social manner.

Where Mrs Fort was cycling between Lenzie and Stepps was almost an empty bottle of Buckfast throw away from a roundabout leading to different motorway connections. The place of origin of the drinkers of this particular caffeinated fortified wine and the illegal disposers of the empties complained of would certainly be hard to determine short of seeing them in the act. The origin is likely to be somewhere other Lenzie, I would suggest. I leave others to speak for North Lanarkshire, which was also mentioned in the letter in question.

Is Buckfast on the up? Yes it is in certain parts of the world. The sales generally continue to rise and public crusades against it, with resultant media publicity, have over the years only served to increase its popularity.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie.

YOU raise a question “Is Buckfast on the up?" as a headline to a reader's letter. The answer seems to be “Yes, it is”, not least in Lenzie, which correspondent Patricia Fort mentions. The Co-op customer care line in Manchester states: “Buckfast is a good seller at the moment and it is therefore highly likely that we will continue to sell it for as long as our customers continue to buy it from us."

Unsightly litter, which Mrs Fort complains about, is bad enough, but if you add to that punctured bike tyres and vet bills to repair gashed dog paws, one might question the Co-op's aspiration to "manage the commercial, social, ethical and environmental impacts of the products and services we offer".

Thomas GF Gray.

4A Auchinloch Road, Lenzie.