Hello again. Some of you may be aware of the Southampton Cycle challenge, organised by the Southampton City Council. We have joined as the Southampton Central Safer Neighbourhood Teams, and not doing too badly. The idea is to get as many staff as possible out and riding a bike. As part of the challenge we have arranged cycle training for all our teams so we can use the Police bikes. We have 3 marked Police bikes, and the idea is that the officers can use them to get to, and around their beats, particularly when we move to the new police station in Southern Rd, which will be further from our beats. It has been a bit of fun on the challenge and it is surprising how the miles add up. If you have not seen it, check out the webpage, there is a week of the challenge left.
Still with cycling – we are continuing with the enforcement of cycling on the pavement, across the Itchen Bridge. PCSO Dave Wright issued another 3 tickets during the week, but we are still getting complaints. I have spoken to the Council about some possible improvements, like a drop kerb at the end of the cycle path from Basepoint to encourage cyclists on to the bridge rather than staying on the pavement. We will continue to enforce and educate, assisted by our colleagues from Bitterne, on their side of the bridge. This is a community priority, as decided at the last St Mary’s PACT (Partners and Community Together) meeting at the beginning of June. Another of the priorities was children getting on the roofs of premises in the Basepoint business area. PCSO Ed Wiggans has identified some children, and spoke to them and their parents. Hopefully that will reduce some of the problems. He has also spoken to some of the businesses to see if we can reduce the opportunity to access the roofs. The 3rd priority for St Mary’s is the sheer volume of traffic passing through Chapel now that Central Bridge is closed. It makes crossing Chapel Rd very difficult for parents and children, particularly on the school run. Councillor Sarah Bogle is on the case.
In Northam we still have the community priority for no left/no right turn at the Prince of Wales junction. That will probably go on and on as there are so many offenders all the time. Anti Social Behaviour as Princes Court is still ongoing, but we are making inroads with the particular problem flat. The tenant is well aware of all the complaints, and it is down to him now, otherwise he may find himself losing the flat. Regarding the priority of vulnerable people being bullied by youths, I visited 3 Somali families recently and they seem happy that the instances are reducing. Again, we have the names of the main antagonists and will be doing things to try to stop them.
On a down side, we have been getting few robberies and incidents on Central Bridge and around that area. One incident a few weeks ago was very high profile when the lad was attacked on his bike. We have identified some suspects for that incident and there have been some arrests. There is also another group – a bit younger, who had been committing crime in Woolston. Sgt Moray Anderson, who runs the safer neighbourhood Team in Woolston has done some work on them, and now it seems they have crossed to out patch. Needless to say, we will be doing some work to try to deter them over here.
Finally commiserations to PCSO Ed Wiggans. He has passed all the interviews to join the Constabulary as a police officer, only to be that due the budget cuts, there is a ban on recruiting. On the plus side, it means I keep him longer though. If you have any comments on anything in the blog – or would like anything included, please let me know – there ahs not been a comment for ages, and ages, and ages
Cheers
Dick
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Thursday, 17 June 2010
The World Cup and Anti Social Behaviour campaign
Well, it is World Cup time, and that means extra duties for us. There is a whole operation around policing the World Cup, with specific patrols on the days that England play. That will be particularly interesting for Friday night, which gets busy with the Violent Crime Strategy anyway. If the weather stays fine, that will mean even more people out and about. So while we hope England go all the way, it does cause us extra work.
As mentioned last week, you may be aware of the Chief Constables Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) campaign. It was run last year, and reported ASB went down about 17% across Hampshire. Fortunately we do not suffer too much from ASB during the summer. I think that is mainly due to the work that has gone on in the past, and still going on, providing activities for youngsters after school and during the holidays. This will include the Summer Activity programme we do with Saints in the Community. The scheme caters for kids 5-15yrs of age, with activities Monday to Thursday from 10am to 3pm at St Marys School playing field. Last year we had 200 children registered, so we are hoping for the same or even more this year. A variety of agencies are involved on top of Saints and the Police. We have Catch 22, Hampshire FA, Solent University and others. On top of that the youth clubs will be open as usual, which provides activities after 3pm. We are getting along further with the planning for the Tag Rugby project with Hampshire RFU on Thursday evenings at St Marys School from 5-6pm.
Regarding the ASB campaign, we will be supported by a host of police staff and ‘office wallers’ who will don their uniform and come out to assist with our activities. Alternatively, we will be holding more of the gazebo events in Hoglands Park, to advise youngsters about crime safety and security mark bikes and phones. There are also ASB operations with the Roads Policing Unit tackling nuisance drivers and vehicles, where often my officers will assist. So all in all it will be a busy time.
During the last week we have held a couple of operations at Itchen Bridge regarding cyclists riding on the pavement. Bitterne police did their end and we have done our end. The first few operations were warning people, and that seems to have made a difference. From warning over 25 people on the first day, it reduced to about 12 the following operation, and when we decided to ticket on the third operation, there were only 2 tickets issued. We will continue to these operations at irregular intervals. The anti social behaviour at Princes Court in Northam has reduced a bit although there was a party there again last weekend. We have had a joint visit with the council to warn the tenant that their tenancy is in jeopardy, so hopefully that will do the trick. .PC Dave Houghton has cracked the 90 mark for the number of tickets issued to offenders at the Prince of Wales junction – he is aiming for well over the ton for the rolling 12 months.
That is about it for now, more next week
Cheers
Dick
As mentioned last week, you may be aware of the Chief Constables Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) campaign. It was run last year, and reported ASB went down about 17% across Hampshire. Fortunately we do not suffer too much from ASB during the summer. I think that is mainly due to the work that has gone on in the past, and still going on, providing activities for youngsters after school and during the holidays. This will include the Summer Activity programme we do with Saints in the Community. The scheme caters for kids 5-15yrs of age, with activities Monday to Thursday from 10am to 3pm at St Marys School playing field. Last year we had 200 children registered, so we are hoping for the same or even more this year. A variety of agencies are involved on top of Saints and the Police. We have Catch 22, Hampshire FA, Solent University and others. On top of that the youth clubs will be open as usual, which provides activities after 3pm. We are getting along further with the planning for the Tag Rugby project with Hampshire RFU on Thursday evenings at St Marys School from 5-6pm.
Regarding the ASB campaign, we will be supported by a host of police staff and ‘office wallers’ who will don their uniform and come out to assist with our activities. Alternatively, we will be holding more of the gazebo events in Hoglands Park, to advise youngsters about crime safety and security mark bikes and phones. There are also ASB operations with the Roads Policing Unit tackling nuisance drivers and vehicles, where often my officers will assist. So all in all it will be a busy time.
During the last week we have held a couple of operations at Itchen Bridge regarding cyclists riding on the pavement. Bitterne police did their end and we have done our end. The first few operations were warning people, and that seems to have made a difference. From warning over 25 people on the first day, it reduced to about 12 the following operation, and when we decided to ticket on the third operation, there were only 2 tickets issued. We will continue to these operations at irregular intervals. The anti social behaviour at Princes Court in Northam has reduced a bit although there was a party there again last weekend. We have had a joint visit with the council to warn the tenant that their tenancy is in jeopardy, so hopefully that will do the trick. .PC Dave Houghton has cracked the 90 mark for the number of tickets issued to offenders at the Prince of Wales junction – he is aiming for well over the ton for the rolling 12 months.
That is about it for now, more next week
Cheers
Dick
Monday, 7 June 2010
Cheerio to the PCSOs and a Cannabis Factory
Hello again, apologies for the delay in updating the blog, but things have been a bit hectic.
First of all, it is cheerio to PCSO Kelly Drodge and PCSO Mark Reynolds. Both are leaving us as they have been accepted as police officers, and start their training at Netley later this month. I have mentioned both in the blog before, Mark started with us back in 2007 and was allocated to Northam. He was the first PCSO to have a street briefing, regarding the problems in Lumpy Lane. As a result we started the first Junior PCSO scheme in Hampshire – which has led to many schemes throughout the county, and further afield. Other achievements include being influential in the painting of the stadium footbridge and the erection of the fencing at Radcliffe Rd Industrial Court. Kelly joined us about 2 years ago, moving from the Waterfront beat to take over St Marys. She has worked really hard in Golden Grove, particularly with St Marys School. Kelly has also been running the Deanery Junior PCSO scheme. Both will be sorely missed, not just by me, but by many in the community. We wish them all the best of luck with their police careers.
On with the everyday stuff, and several residents in Kings House recently complained about a strong smell of cannabis from one flat. PCSO Ed Wiggans and Dave Wright popped along and both reported a significant ‘whiff’ and submitted intelligence. We gained a drug warrant and last week PC Sharon Conway led an operation to execute the warrant. What a result – we found a cannabis factory. All the hydroponics, rooms converted to planting areas, a good result.
Back to our youth involvement, I have been liaising with Jazz Bhatti of Saints in the Community and we are planning the summer activity programme again. This will take place for 4 weeks in the summer holidays at St Mary’s school field, for children within SO14, and will run from 10am to 3pm. Hopefully it will be as successful as previous years in keeping juvenile nuisance down to a minimum. We will be providing at least 2 staff a day.
We also hope to launch the Southampton Street Rugby project with Nicola Vaughan of Hampshire Rugby Football Union. This is a project aimed at children within central Southampton from 7yrs upwards, planned to meet on a Thursday 5-pm at St Marys school playing fields from 8 July for 8 weeks. Again we will supply some officers, as we have some who have been trained as tag coaches, and some coaches from the RFU. We will be holding taster sessions at the youth clubs to supplement the tag sessions at the school.
It is all go isn’t it?..and that’s without neighbourhood issues. The community priorities for Northam have been updated and at the latest PACT (Partners and Community Together) meeting several residents reported bullying to vulnerable people by some youths. So we are taking that one on and are looking at getting the vulnerable group together. There is also anti social behaviour from one flat in Princes Court, so we are working with the council to sort that one out. People in St Marys have complained about cycling on the pavement on the Itchen Bridge so we are doing a couple of operations with Bitterne police to enforce the regulations and issue a few tickets. It will keep us on out toes, and of course we have the Chief Constables Anti Social Behaviour campaign starting again. I will give some of the results in the next blog, which I will try to post a little earlier than this one.
Please let us know of any comments and concerns.
Cheers
Dick
First of all, it is cheerio to PCSO Kelly Drodge and PCSO Mark Reynolds. Both are leaving us as they have been accepted as police officers, and start their training at Netley later this month. I have mentioned both in the blog before, Mark started with us back in 2007 and was allocated to Northam. He was the first PCSO to have a street briefing, regarding the problems in Lumpy Lane. As a result we started the first Junior PCSO scheme in Hampshire – which has led to many schemes throughout the county, and further afield. Other achievements include being influential in the painting of the stadium footbridge and the erection of the fencing at Radcliffe Rd Industrial Court. Kelly joined us about 2 years ago, moving from the Waterfront beat to take over St Marys. She has worked really hard in Golden Grove, particularly with St Marys School. Kelly has also been running the Deanery Junior PCSO scheme. Both will be sorely missed, not just by me, but by many in the community. We wish them all the best of luck with their police careers.
On with the everyday stuff, and several residents in Kings House recently complained about a strong smell of cannabis from one flat. PCSO Ed Wiggans and Dave Wright popped along and both reported a significant ‘whiff’ and submitted intelligence. We gained a drug warrant and last week PC Sharon Conway led an operation to execute the warrant. What a result – we found a cannabis factory. All the hydroponics, rooms converted to planting areas, a good result.
Back to our youth involvement, I have been liaising with Jazz Bhatti of Saints in the Community and we are planning the summer activity programme again. This will take place for 4 weeks in the summer holidays at St Mary’s school field, for children within SO14, and will run from 10am to 3pm. Hopefully it will be as successful as previous years in keeping juvenile nuisance down to a minimum. We will be providing at least 2 staff a day.
We also hope to launch the Southampton Street Rugby project with Nicola Vaughan of Hampshire Rugby Football Union. This is a project aimed at children within central Southampton from 7yrs upwards, planned to meet on a Thursday 5-pm at St Marys school playing fields from 8 July for 8 weeks. Again we will supply some officers, as we have some who have been trained as tag coaches, and some coaches from the RFU. We will be holding taster sessions at the youth clubs to supplement the tag sessions at the school.
It is all go isn’t it?..and that’s without neighbourhood issues. The community priorities for Northam have been updated and at the latest PACT (Partners and Community Together) meeting several residents reported bullying to vulnerable people by some youths. So we are taking that one on and are looking at getting the vulnerable group together. There is also anti social behaviour from one flat in Princes Court, so we are working with the council to sort that one out. People in St Marys have complained about cycling on the pavement on the Itchen Bridge so we are doing a couple of operations with Bitterne police to enforce the regulations and issue a few tickets. It will keep us on out toes, and of course we have the Chief Constables Anti Social Behaviour campaign starting again. I will give some of the results in the next blog, which I will try to post a little earlier than this one.
Please let us know of any comments and concerns.
Cheers
Dick
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