My Community Day in Harborough Council Area 20 July 2023

Highlights:

• Broughton Astley
  • Drug paraphernalia found in Main Street
  • Shoplifting has now ceased after Police action.
  • Speeding reported on B581
     
• Market Harborough
  • Enforcement action led to two illegal e-bikes confiscated and one arrest
  • Education of e-bike riders is on going
  • Drug gas cylinders found in parks
  • Concerns about visible policing expressed
     
• Tugby
  • Anti-Social Behaviour in the layby on the A47 had dropped after Police action
     
• North Kilworth
  • Speeding traffic on the A4304
  • Concerns over police visibility
  • Theft of fuel oil reported
     
• Husbands Bosworth
  • Speeding traffic on the A4304
     
• Theddingworth
  • Speeding traffic on the A4304
     
• Great Glen
  • Vandalism at the playground
     

My Community Day in the Harborough Council area began on 20 July in Broughton Astley at Café Lou’s. The young man who served me told me that in recent weeks he had been clearing up what looked to him like drug paraphernalia from the area outside the café in the mornings. But there was no trouble while the café was open. “We’re not open late in the evening, you see,” he explained.

I decided to call at some other shops, including the Co-op, florist and beauty salon. Everyone I spoke to agreed that Broughton Astley is a pleasant place to live with few problems that would need police attention.

“We did have a few problems some weeks ago,” one shop manager told me. But the police sorted it out quickly enough.

“We have some speeding issues on the bypass,” Cllr Neil Bannister explained to me. He also brought up a specific issue on behalf of one of his residents - which I promised to take up.

I was then off to Market Harborough for a long meeting with the new Leader of Harborough District Council, Cllr Phil Knowles. His main concern was about the policing of the area. Would police numbers be cut in the near future? I reassured him that there were no plans to cut the numbers of officers working the area, but of course that might depend on funding from central government.

He also raised the issue of illegal drugs, particularly the gas canisters and needles there were sometimes found in the parks and gardens.

Cllr Knowles also told me that the council was appointing a Young Person’s Champion in the shape of Cllr Buddy Anderson. I promised to meet with Cllr Anderson to see how his work, and that of the Community Safety Partnership, could work in tandem with what my office is doing in that area.

Off to the police station to meet up with PC Amy Stokes and PC James Monohan to go out on patrol. I asked about the seemingly intractable problems at the layby on the A47 near Tugby. PC Monohan grinned and jerked his thumb towards Amy in the back seat of the patrol car. “Tell him, Amy” he suggested.

Amy explained that they had been aware of the anti-social behaviour there for months and had driven into the layby whenever they were in the area. That seemed to have deterrent effect. “But then a couple of weeks ago I pulled up and there were three cars here with no drivers. I walked into the undergrowth and caught them in the act. I issued three people with community resolution orders. We’ve had no trouble since, word must have got around.” She turned to PC Monohan. “Your turn,” she said.

PC Monohan had his own story of success to tell, so we headed back to Market Harborough and parked up by the church. “We’ve been running education of riders of e-bikes and e-scooters,” he told me, “explaining the law to them and what they can or can’t do.” I nodded. Having done that it was time for enforcement next time. We found several illegal bikes and confiscated two of them and made one arrest.” A success indeed.

Having parted from the two officers, I motored out on the A4304 to North Kilworth. “I am really worried about speeding in North Kilworth and Husbands Bosworth,” Cllr Amand Nunn told me. “In North Kilworth it is particularly traffic heading towards Market Harborough after passing the speed camera on the A4304.” I went to view the spot in question and watched the traffic for some time. Most vehicles did seem to be within the speed limit, but a few clearly weren’t. One was flashed at 40mph within the 30mph zone.

“In Husbands Bosworth,” Cllr Nunn continued, “there are also reports of speeding on the A5199 Welford Road heading towards Welford. Here traffic reaches speeds in excess of the speed limit a fair distance before leaving the 30mph speed limit.”

Again, my own personal observations would seem to back up Cllr Nunn’s.

On to Theddingworth, another village on the same A road where speeding traffic has been reported. I’m told that one vehicle was going so fast it came off the road on the corner as you enter the village from the west and hit the village hall. While I was there, I thought that the tight double bend was slowing traffic down, but at the eastern end of the village it was a different story as the cars and lorries zipped past me.

I’ll be chasing up all these reports.

My final stop of the day was in Great Glen, where Cllr James Haddon told me about vandalised play equipment in the village recreation ground. James couldn’t meet me due to business commitments, but the Parish Council Manager, Joanne, was there.

“We won a grant for new play equipment,” she told me. “We went for special inclusive equipment that allows wheelchair users to join in. It’s great and really popular.” She showed me a roundabout, multi-play frame, monkey bars and a bouncy train. All good stuff. So what was the problem?

“It had only been here a few weeks when one morning we found somebody had taken an angle-grinder to the frame. And there was other damage too. We’ve got CCTV here, but the images were not clear enough.” She shrugged. “We’ve had it all repaired, of course.” I looked and was impressed as much by the obvious enjoyment of the children as by the quality of the equipment.

As usual, I’ll chase up all these issues and report back in a later blog.

Rupert Matthews
Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland