THE headline article about stray horses (Echo, Aug 16) was both timely and a wakeup call.

As a former police officer (now retired) I spent a great deal of my service in and around Bishop Auckland dealing with stray horses.

Then and now the police and other agencies showed little or no interest in solving the problem.

When they did the efforts were derisory and frankly laughable.

During my service the police sent impounded horses to a makeshift pound near police headquarters.

On another occasion, the local authority sent impounded horses to a “secret location” hoping that owners would come along, pay the impound fees and take their animal away.

In fact the horses seemed to vanish into thin air, no owners, or few if any being identified.

Now we have a new initiative asking the same owners to identify themselves and their horses, have them microchipped so that in future should said horse stray onto the highway the owner can be reported and fined.

Insp Reeve omits the fact that by decades of inaction by the various agencies stray horses remain not only a problem, but with a real danger to cause death or serious injury to the public.

There is an ancient law suited to deal with the problem.

The Town Police Clauses Act 1847 S 24 and 25 gives the police and local authorities the power to seize, impound and sell stray horses should the owner not be found.

Can Police, Crime and Victims Commissioner Ron Hogg pull himself away from blaming the present government austerity cuts on every police problem and explain why he and chief constable Mike Barton have not acted decisively to impound and sell such horses under the power granted by legislation?

John Walker, Newton Aycliffe