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OPINION: Lucy, you’re failing us by not tackling anti-social behaviour
An open letter to Lucy Frazer, MP for SE Cambridgeshire.
It’s anti-social behaviour awareness week.
Local residents in Landbeach and Milton are suffering on a nightly basis. Milton Park & Ride and the Tesco car parks are victims of ‘doughnutting’ — cars deliberately skidded.
The damage to the surface and the heaps of shredded rubber are clear for everyone to see. For local residents, there is the noise and danger from these antics.
In the past week, we’ve had some action by local police: attending the site and issuing 12 Section 59 warnings, the start of a process that can lead to the vehicle being seized.
The police are working as hard as they can within the resources, they have available.
The issue is the repeated cuts to police numbers from the Conservative Government and Cambridgeshire Police receiving one of the lowest Government grants in the country.
I saw your appearance on Good Morning Britain when you attempted to say that it’s all good news on the crime and police front.
As the interviewer pointed out, (i) this is merely filling the gap of the number of police officers that your Government cut and (ii) it takes no account of a growing population.
In 2010 when the Conservatives came to power there were 191 officers for each 100,000 residents in Cambridgeshire. According to most recent figures, this ratio has dropped to 184 officers.
We can all see that more crimes are being ‘got away with’, and this is backed up by research from campaigning group Resolve (a Centre of Excellence focused upon community safety and anti-social behaviour).
Half of victims of anti-social behaviour don’t report it because they don’t believe anything will be done.
It’s no good your trying to convince people that the evidence of their own eyes (and ears) is wrong.
Anti-social behaviour has a serious impact on people’s lives. According to research for Resolve, 1 in 6 people have considered moving away because of it and 1 in 10 actually have moved home.
I’m sure you’ll agree that this is a shocking state of affairs, and we need urgent action to restore the public’s confidence that crime reports will lead to action.
When can we expect to see serious Government plans to turn round the situation created by your own mistakes of slashing police numbers?
Kind regards,
Elizabeth McWilliams
Waterbeach
Fact check information
Read more about Resolve here: https://www.resolveuk.org.uk/
Figures per head of population in 2010. Table 4 of this report https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/115745/hosb1410.pdf
Most recent Gov policing report https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00634/SN00634.pdf
Research into effect of anti-social behaviour https://www.resolveuk.org.uk/the-hub/blog-and-articles/84-1-in-6-consider-moving-home-because-of-asb
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