Officers from Leicestershire Constabulary will be at the meeting to provide an update on police issues in Westcotes Ward
Minutes:
Sergeant Simon Barnes of Leicestershire Constabulary updated the Meeting as follows:-
· The Police had written a strong letter to the City Council about the way in which planning policies regarding student accommodation currently were framed and operated;
· The Ward had gained a PC and a PCSO. Although this was welcome, it was recognised that they had been relocated from elsewhere in the Local Policing Unit;
· Although the country’s population had increased to 75 million, the number of police officers employed nationally was the same as it had been when the country’s population was 40 million. This situation was unlikely to change. Locally, the City Centre population was likely to increase by 40,000 due to developments for which planning permission had been given;
· A new Neighbourhood Link initiative had started. Regardless of where someone lived, they could log on to neighbourhoodlink.co.uk and sign up to receive information on issues of interest for their area. They would then receive e-mails periodically about these issues, which would contain links to items of interest;
· Locally, robberies had been targeted, as a result of which they had only increased by 6 over the same period last year, rising from 36 to 42. The majority of these involved students leaving windows and doors open, so the police were working with De Montfort University to educate students about this;
· Crime statistics were as follows:-
o 9 burglaries other than dwellings, a reduction from 25 over the same period last year;
o 7 robberies, a reduction from 11 over the same period last year;
o 7 thefts from persons, a reduction from 21 over the same period last year;
o 38 thefts from motor vehicles. Most of these were due to people leaving items on display in their vehicles. Work to educate people not to do this was on-going; and
o 11 anti-social behaviour incidents, which was an increase from 9 over the same period last year. Positive outcomes had been seen in 5 of these cases;
· A sign had been put up on the slide in Bede Park to deter people from misusing it. Initially, there had been a problem with fixing the sign, as it was made to go on a lamppost, but the Council had successfully adapted it. Some concern was expressed that it could not be seen at night, but Sergeant Barnes confirmed that it could be seen by people using the park during the day and the Police were satisfied that the sign was robust and would stay fixed to the slide;
· Big Johns on Narborough Road had received a late licence for food only until 2.00 am. Comments on this could be made on the City Council’s website; and
· An application to use 2 Equity Road as a bar/food location had been received. The deadline for comments on this was 10 December 2011.
With regard to applications for bar/food locations, the Ward Members advised that they were commenting that the area was at saturation point for these. To date, this had been successful. Sergeant Barnes suggested that it could help such applications to be refused if local people also made similar comments.
A resident advised that they had been told that they could call the police any time if they witnessed anti-social behaviour in Bede Park. However, when they did so, the Police did not respond. Sergeant Barnes explained that the Police would only be able to respond to such calls if they were not busy elsewhere. If they were unable to respond, incident records would still be prepared and used to analyse anti-social behaviour in the area. Anyone reporting incidents could ask for an incident number.
It also was queried why the CCTV camera did not look in to Bede Park. In reply, it was noted that the camera was owned by De Montfort University and was directed towards businesses, rather than the street. The Police did not have any control over where it was directed.
A resident asked what could be done to resolve the problems being caused by taxis double-parking late at night on Braunstone Gate. In reply, it was noted that various operations had been carried out between the Police and the Council’s Licensing officers, where taxis were moved on. However, as soon as the Police and Licensing officers left the area, the vehicles returned.
Various ways of trying to resolve this were being considered. These included making this a one-way street with a taxi rank, making it a fully pedestrianised area, or introducing different night time traffic controls to those operating during the day. At present, the option that appeared to be most feasible was to introduce one-way traffic, but it was felt that the lack of unified business options made it difficult to encourage such investment in to the area, despite the existence of organisations such as the West End Traders. Work to find a long-term solution would continue though.