Walkabout in Glenfield - Glenfield Parish Council & pub landlord - Free Range in Blaby - Narborough Parish Council - Early End
I began at 9am with a tasty breakfast, followed by some free range time in Glenfield. I pottered about talking to passersby and knocking on a few residential doors. This sort of activity puts me in direct touch with the public who I serve. While reports sitting on my desk show me the official statistics, there is nothing quite like talking direct to the public about what concerns them. Office holders should do it more often.
The main view was that the law & order situation was quite good. There were comments about ASB, escooters and badly parked cars. Blame for the asb & escooters was put on teenagers coming out from the city. Bad parking seemed to consist mostly of people parking on the wide pavements, especially on street corners, in Dorset Avenue and adjacent roads
11am
Meeting in The Forge Inn with Cllr Roy Denney [parish council], Sam Hagger [landlord] and Matt Crehan [Everards].
This was a lively and informative conversation that ranged widely over issues facing the hospitality sector and concerns specific to Glenfield.
- There was some concern about the time it took police to respond to 999 and 101 calls. Each of the incidents related referred to some time ago, and I know the Leicestershire Police have been improving recently.
- Visible policing. Cllr Denney & Mr Hagger were firmly of the opinion that they saw officers much less often than before the covid lockdowns and queried if there had been a change of patrolling policy given the increased number of police officers.
- Attendance of police at surgeries. Cllr Denney said that he was generally pleased with the police, but on several occasions he had attended a police surgery as the local parish councillor only to find no sign of the police. He felt that this was discourteous to the public and would lead to a lack of trust and confidence among the public who turned up but found no police present.
- Mr Crehan wanted to know if his landlords could be of help given that local residents would often chat to a landlord or bar staff about local issues. He suggested that maybe the pub staff could hand out advice leaflets or something similar.
11:45
Free Range Time, Blaby
I visited a number of shops, the fruit and veg stall and chatted to passersby. With the sole exception of the chippie who reported no problems, all the places that I visited reported that pickpocketing, street theft and shoplifting had all increased markedly over the past 2 or 3 months. I was told of several incidents, with purses being stolen from elderly ladies by teenagers or young men being the crime that seemed to cause most concern. Mostly this was simple pickpocketing, but on one or two occasions the ladies had been jostled and pushed as their bag or purse was stolen.
Nobody seemed do know what the police, council or any one else in authoritywas doing about this situation.
13:45
Meeting with Cllr Nigel Grundy, Cllr Janet Forey and Narborough Parish Cllr Aliso Clark in Narborough Parish Council offices.
The three councillors began by praising their local police, but lamented the fact that the officers looking after what they described as a large beat had been reduced recently. They felt that this reduction in numbers of officers stationed locally had been behind a drop in the visibility of the police across Narborough, which in turn had led to a rise in ASB.
The cllrs acknowledged that Narborough was a low crime area, but pointed out that crime and ASB did happen there, were on the rise and needed to be dealt with.
3pm
Meeting with police officers, Blaby
This meeting had to be cancelled at short notice when the officers were called away to deal with an emergency.
