Neighbourhood Policing MattersAlthough the Davis Estate has suffered from the effects of effective policing in Weeds Wood on several occasions—the yob element spill onto the Davis Estate to avoid the Police in their home area—this reached a new high point on New Year's Eve.
On this occasion a small gang of youths (both male and female) left a wave of destruction behind them on their way to and from the shops in Shirley Avenue, which are presumably their source of supply of booze when they are effectively blocked from getting it in Weeds Wood.
Several properties in Binland Grove suffered vandalism, resulting in at least four such homes' occupants calling out the Police. Ward councillor John Ward was alerted to what had just happened and was on the scene in just a few minutes, as were the Police. He made it clear to the officers that merely shifting the Weeds Wood problem, rather than dealing with it, was not acceptable.
Cllr Ward also spent the rest of the evening at the scene, and was able to witness the return (twice!) of the culprits, and helped ensure that they were apprehended by the Police officers. The first of these times the two teenagers (the others were no longer with them) were interviewed in the street and some details taken, and the second time their behaviour was sufficiently disruptive that the Police detained them and took them away, though they were released later.
Immediately after this series of incidents, A HREF="../../councillors/information/JohnWard.html" NAME="Cllr John Ward" TARGET="Cllr John Ward">Cllr Ward took steps to have this locality patrolled more actively, and this is now being done. Hopefully we shall not suffer anything like the same level of anti-social behaviour on the Davis Estate in future, though the underlying problem certainly has not yet been solved.
The situation is being watched closely, and a number of stops have already been pulled out, on a number of fronts, to be as sure as anyone can be that all that can be done is being done to protect our residents from this scourge.