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