Monday, December 23, 2013
Scrapping City Patrol Would Be a Big Mistake
The City Council is currently consulting on its proposals for next year's council budget changes. Amongst these is the scrapping of the City Patrol service. I would urge a rethink. City Patrol do a huge amount of good work - dealing with matters like fly tipping, illegal car sales, dog fouling and littering. I use the service frequently in dealing with issues in Freemantle Ward. At the last Full Council meeting I asked how many matters they have dealt with in the last 2 years - the answer was 3,500! Scrapping this service will be a false economy; it will mean a more untidy city, more complaints to the council and a signal to those that behave irresponsibly and in some cases criminally that they can get away with it.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Street Drinking Update
This evening Cllr Parnell and I met with Council Officers from the Licencing and Trading Standards Departments and with members of the local Police.
We met to discuss the problem of street drinking in and around Shirley Road and Shirley High Street. This is a problem I have been highlighting consistently for the past 2 years as I get regular complaints from local residents.
I have raised the matter in Full Council meetings, the media and at the city's Safer City Partnership.
Tonight's meeting was the second of a number of meetings that are being held to look at possible solutions to the problem. The matter is now being taken very seriously. The Police are planning to be a lot more robust in challenging street drinking, new signs are going to be put up, the police have recruited some local Polish volunteers to help communicate the message that street drinking should not be taking place, and a range of licencing proposals are being considered which should have a positive effect.
Sadly the city council has just granted another alcohol licence in Shirley Road. On the plus side the licence comes with a string of new conditions - for instance banning the sale of single cans of beer, which the police feel will make substantial difference. I am hopeful that these conditions can start to be applied to other existing off licences in the area.
We met to discuss the problem of street drinking in and around Shirley Road and Shirley High Street. This is a problem I have been highlighting consistently for the past 2 years as I get regular complaints from local residents.
I have raised the matter in Full Council meetings, the media and at the city's Safer City Partnership.
Tonight's meeting was the second of a number of meetings that are being held to look at possible solutions to the problem. The matter is now being taken very seriously. The Police are planning to be a lot more robust in challenging street drinking, new signs are going to be put up, the police have recruited some local Polish volunteers to help communicate the message that street drinking should not be taking place, and a range of licencing proposals are being considered which should have a positive effect.
Sadly the city council has just granted another alcohol licence in Shirley Road. On the plus side the licence comes with a string of new conditions - for instance banning the sale of single cans of beer, which the police feel will make substantial difference. I am hopeful that these conditions can start to be applied to other existing off licences in the area.
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