Inspector Andy Prophet attended the West Area Committee, and quite a few ‘law and order’ issues were discussed.
The good news is that the police have been using metal-detecting ‘arches ‘ in Rayleigh pubs and have only found a very low number of knives.
The first bit of bad news is that walls are still being knocked down in the London Road area of Rayleigh. Counciillors Chris Lumley, Joan Mockford and Jackie Dillnutt all spoke on this. Chris Lumley was particularly concerned that he hadn’t seen any of the special constables who were supposed to be concentrating on London Road – Inspector Prophet said he would make sure that Chris would see one soon.
Town Councillor Cheryl Roe said that she’d received reports about a couple of ‘white vehicles’ outside Asda (the reports have come via parents of pupils at Sweyne Park School). Chris Black said that there was an application coming up soon from Asda for their wall around their storage area, which gave an opportunity for the council and Asda to discuss any security issues.
It was a frustrating meeting for many people there. The London Road criminal damage problem is still going on. Ron Oatham felt frustrated that after another 12 months County Highways aren’t much closer to installing a crossing at the Rawreth Lane/ Downhall Park Way Junction. Some residents were frustrated that they didn’t get the answers they wanted. Other residents were unhappy that the Rawreth land under threat of development is owned by the family of a Rochford DC Conservative Councillor.
And did anyone else feel frustrated that one or two councillors could barely stay awake at times?
If you have any information on the criminal damage in London Road, or criminal behaviour outside Asda, please don’t leave comments here, but email us instead.
The rate of anti-social behaviour and petty crime has certainly increased in Rayleigh. Unfortunately many people, be it our Councillors, the Police or the parents who cannot control their offspring have been pushing this issue under the carpet.
We need to wake up now otherwise, before we know it, the rate of crime will be beyond our local Police. This is not scaremongering, it is fact. Walk into ASDA when there are youths hanging around and intimidating people or walk down Bardfield way when it is dark or get off a late train at Rayleigh station or walk into Rayleigh Town centre in the evening or even Saturday afternoon when there are youngsters harassing people.
The latest to come to Rayleigh is more hoodies, nothing in that, however when these youngsters are wearing gang style scarves over their faces then this is worrying. I saw that myself a few weeks ago in London Road. There is also the question of illegal drugs. A cab driver told me this week that a colleague of his had a regular customer who was dropping of packages at houses in Rayleigh and was concerned enough to drop the customer. And by all accounts the damage in London Road is still continuing.
The Police and our Council have to realise that if this is not put right now it will make theie jobs much, much harder in the future.
Parents have a lot of input here. For every child, be they 10, 15 or 20 years old most have parents. Just saying that they cannot control their children is not good enough. They have responsibility to control their children and to bring them up the right way.
Are we seeing influence from outside of our town promoting this kind of behaviour or is it from within, by new or established residents.
Whichever, we need to wake up and taste the coffee or our town will soon be overtaken by events.
It appears that the skatepark behind the Leisure Centre is a big draw for teenagers from outside Rayleigh and the surrounding areas.
This may also account for the recent vandalism and incidents around Asda.