This anti-social behaviour must be dealt with…
I’m going through one of my frustrating times where bureaucracy and Home Office guidelines are getting in the way of helping a community!
Fazeley and Mile Oak, near Tamworth, is very pleasant in the main. I had a good walk around there today, talked to quite a lot of local people and generally had a good look around. The sun was shining and, as I say, it was very pleasant. That’s in the most part.
Unfortunately there are a couple of ‘hot spots’ where drinking, verbal abuse and pointless vandalism by younger members of the community is a real problem. The stupidity illustrated in the pictures may seem quite minor but linked with the late night yobbish behaviour it is causing real problems for normal law abiding citizens.
And that’s where my frustration comes in. For some time now, because of residents’ concerns, I’ve been talking to the Licensing Authority and police about granting a prohibition order against drinking alcohol in public in specific parts of the Fazeley and Mile Oak area.
However, I’ve been told consistently by both agencies that it can’t be done because there have been so few complaints about alcohol related issues. Furthermore the police have been assuring me for months that the number of general complaints about anti-social behaviour have gone down significantly. That’s puzzled me because local councillors and local people are telling me that anti-social behaviour, drug issues and general problems concerning alcohol have got worse not better.
The reason for that has now become apparent. Today I made a point of talking to people close to where the mindless vandalism in the picture occurred and I learned that far from things getting better, it really is getting worse. I learned that residents no longer bother reporting incidents to the police; firstly because they believe nothing will be done and, worse still, because some are fearful of reprisals if they do complain!
Now that’s not on. I’m actually very shocked. Fazeley and Mile Oak aren’t perfect but, that said, there are many much worse places in Staffordshire. Government guidelines, however, won’t allow Licensing Authorities to ban public drinking unless there are significant complaints from the public. What the guidelines don’t allow for are the circumstances described above. So I say ignore the guidelines, accept the reality of the situation and do something about it.
Next week I’m due to have lunch with a couple of senior police officers from Trent Valley Division to catch up on something completely different. I think the course of our conversations will have changed as of today. Action does need to be taken to protect law abiding local people, be it by alcohol prohibition orders, police enforcement or both. Something is going to be done!
I’ll write again on this after my meeting with them.
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9 comments
Keep it up, you’re comments are right. Glad someone’s fighting our corner.
Thanks for speaking out about anti-social behaviour in Mile Oak and Fazeley Matthew. There is a possible explanation for the different views you hear. The Police saying reports of this kind have reduced - local people saying the bad behaviour has increased.
Some of the anti-social behaviour in past months took place on Deer Park Estate. The youths concerned used the alleyway that links |Mile Oak to Fazeley over bourne brook bridge to come into Deer Park, and to make a sharp exit when police were called. You show a photograph of that alleyway on your blog.
For the past few months the alleyway has been closed during the construction o f some Homezone properties and while some youths do still use the bridge, and still come into Deer Park this way, it is not now a fast escape route.
This has also meant that the range of the few badly behaved individuals has been limited and their bad behaviour will have had a more noticeable effect in Mile Oak.
The residents of Deer Park Road and Reindeer Road have sent two petitions to the appropriate people in LDC asking that the alleyway and the bridge remain closed when the house are complete, but we have had no reply.
Alleyways are associated with crime, particularly assault, rape and to a much lesser degree murder.
We are hoping to make positive engagement with some of the youths involved by trying to provide them with some really meaningful activities will give them hope and an opportunity to then gain employement and the feelings of self respect and social responsibility that generally comes with it.
We want to do this both through the youth centre at Mile Oak and the Fazeley and District initiative.
While we try to do this, it is absolutley essential that people are able to lead normal lives, without being threatened or intimidated and without abuse ordamage to property.
Kevin Stackhouse (our local CSO) has been excellent in the work he has done, but his presence alone is not sufficient.
A real firm police prescence and some firm action are both necessary - in addition to what the local community is trying to do to help itself.
Lets not forget the huge effort that went in to the recent opening of the Youth Centre facility at Mile Oak. This sort of thing has to be helped to flourish, not to be suppressed by the bad behaviour of just a few.
Thank you for starting this debate via your blog.
John Wedrychowski
well i am completely shocked and appalled to hear that the footpath between deer park and manor rd is in talks to remain closed i dont think any consideration has been taken into account about the mums who use this access to take their kids to school me being one of them, i would rather walk through there than take my kids on to the main road, i do understand the issues about anti social behaviour but closing this footpath will not make any difference they can just walk around the main road and then come back into deer park that way. as a resident of deer park all my life the only problem i feel that needs concentration is the derelict garage site up near the shops, cant something be done with that land? in the 30yrs that i have lived here crime has not been much of an issue its just anti social behaviour and i must admit has quietened down in the past 6mths.
i would also like to know why this petition was never brought to my attention and what about the people of manor rd do they know that this petition was going ahead
I congratulate Matthew Ellis on taking the time and trouble to speak to the residents of the Mile-Oak and Fazeley area who are actually affected by the current episodes of anti-social behaviour. As an example of how serious this can get, see today’s issue of the Tamworth Herald (8/02/07), which reports paramedics calling for Police back-up because of an intimidating crowd of youths which gathered when they attended a 15 year old youth “affected by alcohol” in Manor Road!
John Wedrychowski’s suggestions for influencing the youths concerned (”We are hoping to make positive engagement with some of the youths involved by trying to provide them with some really meaningful activities will give them hope and an opportunity to then gain employement and the feelings of self respect and social responsibility that generally comes with it”) are excellent and constructive and a pleasant change from the “lock them up and throw away the key” approach. Why, though, does it have to be “us” who make the effort to do what the parents of the youths involved have failed to do?
There is one aspect of the problem which has not yet been mentioned which is the role of parents in controlling the behaviour of their children. When you have children you assume a responsibility, for your lifetime, for their welfare and behaviour. If one of my sons, both of whom are over 30 and left home a long-while ago, gets into trouble with the law it will be my responsibiliy for not having given them a good enough example to follow, or enough sense of self-worth to value what people think of them and,logically, what people think of the upbringing they were given by their parents. If they ran into serious financial problems, I would feel it my responsibility as a parent to help them as much as I could.
The main point I want to make is that, when you have children, you take on responsibilities to them, and to society at large, whether you like it or not! Society, i.e. other people, have the right to expect you to do your utmost to carry out those responsibilities and, if you wont do so, to take action against you. The sort of action to be taken can be the subject of another debate.
I believe that “parents are responsible for the behaviour of their children,at all times”.
Does anybody else agree?
As a local district councillor this is a problem that I get lots of people contacting me about. The problem seems to be localised around alleyways and one solution would be for some of them to be gated and locked at night. This would not make the problem go away but would reduce it late at night and make it easier for the police to catch people if escape routes were cut off.
The possibility of a localised public drinking ban is still in place but the police need more data so I would urge the public to not give up on the police and to continue to report all incidents of criminal damage etc. The police cannot work in isolation and they need the publics help with stopping these incidents.
On the whole Fazeley and Mile Oak is a very pleasant place to live and it’s a shame that incidents like this have to be reported but hopefully with the new youth centre and the rebuilt community centre in Mile Oak things will keep improving.
Cllr Ian Lewin
As the area’s County Councillor I met today with senior officers from Trent Valley Division of Staffordshire Police.
Although planned to be a more strategic orientated meeting I took the opportunity to talk about Mile Oak and Fazeley specifically.
I’m very pleased to confirm it is high on their agenda and they too are concerned at an apparent raising in the public’s tollerance levels as opposed to a reduction in Anti Social Behaviour and low level crime.
It is clear that there is a real determination to work with other public agencies to tackle the causes of this as well as use enforcement where appropriate.
I was pleased with what I heard and we’ve talked about a number of initiatives moving forward.
Over the next couple of weeks I’m arranging for questionnaires on key issues to be delivered to households. It starts, weather permitting, tomorrow.
I encourage people to complete them as honestly as possible please.
Thank you to everyone who has recently completed our survey forms in the Deer Park area. The response was staggering and very useful.
The evidence of certain issues that have come out will mean I can now have more meetings with the police and Local Authority to ensure appropriate actions are taken in the area.
We intend to cover the whole of Fazeley and Mile Oak in due course with similar questionnaires.
Thanks to all who helped out.
not every were is perfect you no so get over iit ok naomi mawby and katii xxxxxxxxxx
(L) :P:P:P:P:PP:P:P you shunt change anythiing x
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