Once a week, I get out of the office to find out what the public are thinking about crime, anti-social behaviour and policing. It is a key part of my job to discover what the people want from their police force and its partners – then do my best to ensure that it is delivered. This week I was in Melton Mowbray.
My day actually began with a meeting in the City of Leicester. But there was a clear Melton link as Cllr Pip Allnat, Leader of Melton Council, was at the meeting. I gave him a lift back to Melton as I was going that way anyway.
That gave us the opportunity to have a fascinating chat about how he was settling in as the new Leader of the Council. As a Labour leader taking over from the Conservatives after they had run the council for many years would have been a challenge in itself. But Cllr Allnat had not been a councillor at all until he was propelled into office in May this year. Obviously, it is a job full of challenges, so we had a lot to talk about – especially the policing and crime challenges facing the borough.
After I dropped Cllr Allnat off at the council offices, I popped[LB1] in to the police station. I had a chat with the two ladies on the front desk here. One of my key priorities is to raise the profile of the police and to make them more visible across our communities. Having front desks open to the public is a key part of that, as is trying to identify those offices which can be open by appointment though this will not always be possible everywhere.
The ladies told me that they had been fairly busy. When they don’t have a member of the public come to talk to them, they handle emails and messages received via the website. So their time is never wasted. I had a peer into the knife bin. Were there more than last time I had called? Apparently so. More dangerous knives being taken off the streets was good news.
I then moved on to Nigel’s Café in King Street. Nigel not only serves a cracking cup of tea but is a leading light in the local business community and a fantastic ambassador for the town. He told me that crime in the town centre was generally quite low, but that there had been some shoplifting. He was also keen to tell me about the fantastic range of events going on – including “street food Fridays” and classic car displays. They all help to bring people into the town, he told me. The events guide is available online : https://meltonbid.co.uk/index.php/events-guide/
Having a few minutes before my next meeting, I dropped in on a few shops in the Market Place and Nottingham Street. They confirmed what Nigel had told me – and added that the local beat officer and PCSO are hugely supportive of the shops and shopping streets.
Then it was back to the council offices to meet Cllr Pat Cumbers, Chair of the Melton Community Safety Partnership. We covered a number of topics where my office could work together with the CSP, police and other partners to make Melton and the surrounding villages safer for the people who live and work there. These included:
- Reducing Domestic Abuse, especially among the elderly
- The use of police dogs looking for drugs in the night-time economy [NTE]
- Fly-tipping
- Agricultural Crime and the work of the Rural Policing Team
- Graffiti and other anti-social behaviour [ASB]
- Sports and other diversionary tactics designed to keep youngsters away from crime
- The SMART [Secure Melton Against Retail Theft] scheme
- Pub Watch and reports of drink spiking
We agreed to work together to try to tackle these issues. I’ll be reporting back shortly.
My next appointment was with Cllr Sharon Butcher who does a lot of work with youngsters in the town. I walked over to the skateboard park in the nearby park to meet her. She did not have good news for me.
The skateboard park is much valued by local youngsters, but there have been some ugly incidents here. In the past month there have been three fights here with teenagers ending up needing hospital treatment. Cllr Butcher told me that the police were doing excellent work, but of course they can’t be everywhere. That was why the council had installed additional CCTV cameras and other measures here.
Cllr Butcher finished by inviting me to attend the next meeting of the Safer Melton organisation. It is in September. Fortunately, I’m free that evening, so I’ll be back.
