Public force police to continue blitz on illegal town centre parking
Tuesday, 6th September 2011.
Anti-social behaviour and illegal parking were the main themes of a lively meeting attended by over 50 members of the public last night.
The public meeting of Haverhill Safer Neighbourhood Team was combined with the first public forum of the newly-constituted One Haverhill umbrella group of agencies and service providers.
The meeting resulted in three priorities for the police to concentrate on over the next three months and a host of other issues for One Haverhill to look at solving.
The SNT chief, Insp Chris Galley, had suggested at the beginning of the meeting that the priorities of the last three months - anti-social behaviour along the Railway Walk and in the Strasbourg Square area, anti-social bejhaviour on the Recreation Ground and illegal parking in High Street - should be brought to a conclusion.
The anti-social behaviour issues could be incorporated into One Haverhill's five-year plan for young people in the town, and the parking issue would just become part of normal police patrols.
But the meeting had other ideas, and Insp Galley was forced in the end to take back two of the three priorities, the only change being replacing the Recreation Ground issue with that of anti-social behaviour on the Parkway estate.
Insp Galley said robust policing, involving seizure of alcohol, an anti-social behviour closure order on a house in Strasbourg Square and involving parents of offending youngsters, had been effective.
He also said police had issued 417 warning notices to illegally parked motorists in High Street during the 'education' phase of the operation, and 31 fixed penalty notices after enforcement began.
Neither of these satisfied members of the public present and both issues featured strongly in the feedback from the groups into which the meeting divided to tease out issues of concern.
People not only wanted the blitz on parking to continue, but they wanted it extended into Queen Street, which was eventually agreed.
Police were told if they had issued hundreds of warning tickets and only 30 fines, officers were clearly not in the street at the right times of day, but Insp Galley said the figures reflected the extended period of 'education' forced by the delay in Suffolk County Council to get round to renewing the double yellow lines.
"We have to be realistic," he said. "You'd have to have a traffic warden, which we don't have any more, or an officer there all the time."
Mike Rudge suggested parking could be made free and then people would use the car parks, but Steve Baugh of Suffolk County Council said working people would fill up all car parking if it was free, as they got there first in the mornings.
"Charging for car parking is about managing parking, not about the council making money," he said.
Margaret Marks said she used the free car park behind the police station and it was always empty. "People are just too lazy to park in a car park," she said.
Haverhill town mayor Cllr Maureen Byrne raised the issue of the link between a rise in anti-social behaviour and cuts in funding to the youth service.
"We now have no youth service in Haverhill at all," she said. "People have been made redundant, and we want to know what is happening about providing youth services in the town because our kids deserve it."
Kerry Young, a youth wortker in Haverhill for 18 years said the service had been restructured and they had all had to apply for their own jobs, but they had been successful, with just two made redundant through their own choice, having been off sick.
She admitted they had lost the youth club, but said they were still doing a lot of targeted detached work with youngsters.
"I am sory the youth club had to go because we had built it up from nothing, but there have been cutbacks and we can't work with all young people any more, so we have to target."
Haverhill Town Council clerk Gordon Mussett said his council had put funds towards the youth club for years and the county had closed it down.
He was now trying to buy in youth workers, but Suffolk would not let him do it, so he had now turned to Cambridgeshire County Council to try to buy the service from them.
The meeting chairman Tim Marks said One Haverhill recognised the problem which was why it had initiated its five-year plan for young people.
But Mick Pilling highlighted particular anti-social behaviour on the Parkway estate, particularly cars racing around.
"This has been reported so many times," he said. "I've been trying for 20 years to get speed humps in The Causeway. Is it going to take a child being killed to get something done?"
Residents in Crowland Road were very concerned about traffic problems and the consultations currently going on about making the street one-way.
Brian Thomas said it was the only exit for the ambulance and he knew of three occasions when it had been held up there.
"You've just forgotten Crowland Road," he told council officers. "We've been trying for 25 years to get a one-way system."
Mr Baugh responded that changing traffic movements just pushed traffic from one problem road onto another.
"The north-south connections in Haverhill are not great," he said. "The roads are not suitable for the volume of traffic using them."
Barry Robbins lambasted councillors and officers for letting the situation get to this state.
"We've heard that people have been trying to get this or that doen for 20 years or 25 years," he said. "The roads have been how they are for years. Surely you knew there would be more cars on the road? Why didn't you plan?
"Nothing gets done. You just pass the buck all the time."
The issues raised which were not made police priorities and which, residents were promised, would all be addressed by One Haverhill, were:
*Extra policing in areas were intelligent street lighting would be going off between midnight and 5am;
*Anti-social behaviour near Lowry Close play area;
*Parking issues in Elmhurst Close and Hamlet Road;
*Parking issues in Orchard Close;
*Placing of wheelie bins on pavements;
*Allegations of drug-use on the former Clements School site;
*Crowland Road traffic scheme and road surface subsidence;
*Speed and noise of Stagecoach buses in Shetland Road early in the morning;
*The number of under 14s out and about in the streets of Haverhill in the early hours of the morning;
*A crossing required in Greenfields Way near the new Clements School;
*Damage and an overgrown passageway in St Botolphs Way.
The public meeting of Haverhill Safer Neighbourhood Team was combined with the first public forum of the newly-constituted One Haverhill umbrella group of agencies and service providers.
The meeting resulted in three priorities for the police to concentrate on over the next three months and a host of other issues for One Haverhill to look at solving.
The SNT chief, Insp Chris Galley, had suggested at the beginning of the meeting that the priorities of the last three months - anti-social behaviour along the Railway Walk and in the Strasbourg Square area, anti-social bejhaviour on the Recreation Ground and illegal parking in High Street - should be brought to a conclusion.
The anti-social behaviour issues could be incorporated into One Haverhill's five-year plan for young people in the town, and the parking issue would just become part of normal police patrols.
But the meeting had other ideas, and Insp Galley was forced in the end to take back two of the three priorities, the only change being replacing the Recreation Ground issue with that of anti-social behaviour on the Parkway estate.
Insp Galley said robust policing, involving seizure of alcohol, an anti-social behviour closure order on a house in Strasbourg Square and involving parents of offending youngsters, had been effective.
He also said police had issued 417 warning notices to illegally parked motorists in High Street during the 'education' phase of the operation, and 31 fixed penalty notices after enforcement began.
Neither of these satisfied members of the public present and both issues featured strongly in the feedback from the groups into which the meeting divided to tease out issues of concern.
People not only wanted the blitz on parking to continue, but they wanted it extended into Queen Street, which was eventually agreed.
Police were told if they had issued hundreds of warning tickets and only 30 fines, officers were clearly not in the street at the right times of day, but Insp Galley said the figures reflected the extended period of 'education' forced by the delay in Suffolk County Council to get round to renewing the double yellow lines.
"We have to be realistic," he said. "You'd have to have a traffic warden, which we don't have any more, or an officer there all the time."
Mike Rudge suggested parking could be made free and then people would use the car parks, but Steve Baugh of Suffolk County Council said working people would fill up all car parking if it was free, as they got there first in the mornings.
"Charging for car parking is about managing parking, not about the council making money," he said.
Margaret Marks said she used the free car park behind the police station and it was always empty. "People are just too lazy to park in a car park," she said.
Haverhill town mayor Cllr Maureen Byrne raised the issue of the link between a rise in anti-social behaviour and cuts in funding to the youth service.
"We now have no youth service in Haverhill at all," she said. "People have been made redundant, and we want to know what is happening about providing youth services in the town because our kids deserve it."
Kerry Young, a youth wortker in Haverhill for 18 years said the service had been restructured and they had all had to apply for their own jobs, but they had been successful, with just two made redundant through their own choice, having been off sick.
She admitted they had lost the youth club, but said they were still doing a lot of targeted detached work with youngsters.
"I am sory the youth club had to go because we had built it up from nothing, but there have been cutbacks and we can't work with all young people any more, so we have to target."
Haverhill Town Council clerk Gordon Mussett said his council had put funds towards the youth club for years and the county had closed it down.
He was now trying to buy in youth workers, but Suffolk would not let him do it, so he had now turned to Cambridgeshire County Council to try to buy the service from them.
The meeting chairman Tim Marks said One Haverhill recognised the problem which was why it had initiated its five-year plan for young people.
But Mick Pilling highlighted particular anti-social behaviour on the Parkway estate, particularly cars racing around.
"This has been reported so many times," he said. "I've been trying for 20 years to get speed humps in The Causeway. Is it going to take a child being killed to get something done?"
Residents in Crowland Road were very concerned about traffic problems and the consultations currently going on about making the street one-way.
Brian Thomas said it was the only exit for the ambulance and he knew of three occasions when it had been held up there.
"You've just forgotten Crowland Road," he told council officers. "We've been trying for 25 years to get a one-way system."
Mr Baugh responded that changing traffic movements just pushed traffic from one problem road onto another.
"The north-south connections in Haverhill are not great," he said. "The roads are not suitable for the volume of traffic using them."
Barry Robbins lambasted councillors and officers for letting the situation get to this state.
"We've heard that people have been trying to get this or that doen for 20 years or 25 years," he said. "The roads have been how they are for years. Surely you knew there would be more cars on the road? Why didn't you plan?
"Nothing gets done. You just pass the buck all the time."
The issues raised which were not made police priorities and which, residents were promised, would all be addressed by One Haverhill, were:
*Extra policing in areas were intelligent street lighting would be going off between midnight and 5am;
*Anti-social behaviour near Lowry Close play area;
*Parking issues in Elmhurst Close and Hamlet Road;
*Parking issues in Orchard Close;
*Placing of wheelie bins on pavements;
*Allegations of drug-use on the former Clements School site;
*Crowland Road traffic scheme and road surface subsidence;
*Speed and noise of Stagecoach buses in Shetland Road early in the morning;
*The number of under 14s out and about in the streets of Haverhill in the early hours of the morning;
*A crossing required in Greenfields Way near the new Clements School;
*Damage and an overgrown passageway in St Botolphs Way.
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