Marcus Wood

I'm still reeling from the discovery that my office building of six years in Windsor has become the centre for 'race rioting', according to Newsnight.

I vacated it when I got selected in Torbay and the landlord then sold it to some Muslim businessmen who already owned the Dairy opposite.

Now I gather their decision to turn it into a muslim learning centre has caused 'riots'. Rubbish, there were frequent riots when we were there, long before the muslims bought the dairy.

The joke is that we used to call the road (Shirley Avenue) Beiruit High Street because barely a morning passed when there wasn't a burned out car, or full crime investigation squad there. The neighbourhood is so rough we had bars on the windows and a full security railing erected - just to protect us during the day when we were there!

The broken window shown on Newsnight last night was my actual office window, and I can tell you that it looked like that (broken) about four times a year.

People imagine Windsor as ganteel, but forget that it is in fact a garrison town with some genuine deprivation. This area (Dedworth) is a large 1950's council estate and there are a very large number of problem families housed there. The street suffered some very unsavoury characters - skinheads and troublemakers -real 'neighbours from hell' stuff - two or three homes used solely for the dismantling and dumping of scrap cars, that kind of thing. About ten years ago a chapter of Hells Angels even moved into a house nearby and eventually there was a horrible murder there; there were drugs busts and constant running battles between rival gangs.

I complained frequently about the lack of police presence in the area and I am not surprised the Asians who owned the dairy have had to make their own security arrangements. The way the BBC have hyped this into a racial incident is disgraceful.