A new row has erupted over the right of parents to smack their children.

We spoke to shoppers in Keighley town centre about their reaction to the news that a father was found guilty of assault because he smacked his eight-year-old daughter on her bare bottom in a dentist's waiting room.

The Scottish court said that the parent, a primary school teacher, had caused his daughter unnecessary suffering when he smacked her. The man's conviction immediately prompted calls for clearer laws on the punishment of children.

The man, who has been suspended from his teaching job, said he was a good parent because the punishment was intended to make the girl have her tooth removed by the dentist for her own benefit.

A spokesman for the Nation-al Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) says the government should give parents better guidance on hitting children by changing the law.

Becky Kennedy, 23, of Florist Street, Keighley, is a nursery-nurse student at Keighley College.

She told us: "If you are working in a nursery, you cannot hit a child. If a child is misbehaving, you can tell it off, separate it from the other children or send it to the head-teacher.

"If you are at home and your own child is being bad then that is a different situation. However, I think that the Scottish father in the news was wrong to smack his child like that in public."

Julie Drummond, 18, of Whin Knoll Avenue, Keighley, is also a student nursery worker. "I don't think you should hit children at all, especially in public," she said. "I think it's disgusting when I see people smacking their kids in public. I just don't think it's right. A tap on their hand is OK but I would never do what that man did."

Gloria Cox, 61, visiting Keighley from Halifax, has two grown-up children. "I believe in a smack now and again," she said. "I'm old-fashioned when it comes to teaching your children right from wrong. I would never have pulled my children's trousers down, but I do think it is alright to smack them in public if you need to."

Her husband Brian worked as a school caretaker and saw hundreds of school children throughout his working life and called for stronger discipline in school. He told us: "I think it is disgusting that the father has been punished by the court. I gave my children a tap every now and again when they were young. If you let your kids get away with things they will test you and test you to the limit.

"I worked in a school for 12 years and I thought it was wrong that teachers could not discipline children properly. Nowadays, if the children are punished in any way their parents go straight into the school to complain."

Tracey Punt, 27, of Hain-worth Road, Keighley, has five children. "I have just been to the dentist with my girl and gone through what that man in Scotland went through," she said. "I wouldn't smack her in public, but there is a time and a place for it. I hardly ever smack mine - I just shout at them and ground them. If they can't go out to play with their friends they moan at me, but I just say 'it's tough'. Grounding them is a real punishment, smacking doesn't do much good."

Khalid Khan, 26, has younger brothers and sisters. "That man in court should be locked up," he claimed. "You should not hit small children like that. My youngest brother and sister are four and five and they just get sent to bed early if they misbehave. We stop them playing on the computer, take away their toys or stop them playing outside if they are bad."

Taxi driver Mazhar Hussein, 29, of Malsis Road, Keighley, has two young children. "My kids are four and nine years old," he told us. "I don't think you should smack young kids. I tell mine off. You shouldn't ignore them if they have done something wrong - I always tell them how they should behave. I just stop mine from watching programmes like Tellytubbies or Gladiators on the TV. That seems to work."

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