Needle danger in Bewdley alleyway

Residents in Bewdley are worried about the rise of anti-social behaviour becoming apparent on Wribbenhall estate.

One resident, who did not want to be named, told The Shuttle there has been an increase in the amount of cars and houses being broken into, as well as an issue of needles being left on the streets.

She said: “Last Tuesday night I phoned the police as there were needles in an alleyway that lots of people walk through.

“The police told me they would send someone out straight away to deal with it.

“It was getting dark and no one had come to remove the needles, so I called the police again, who said removing the needles would be the responsibility of the council.

“There was even a needle sticking out of one of the fences – they are just so dangerous.”

The woman said the needles were finally removed by Wednesday afternoon, but she was concerned by the length of time it took as the children who live on the estate were off from school due to the bank holiday.

A spokeswoman for Wyre Forest District Council said: “A message was left by West Mercia Police at 8.53pm on the night of Tuesday May 27.

“As the street scene team do not work over night they did not pick up the message that the job needed to be done until 9:01am on Wednesday morning. The needles were collected at 1:55pm.

 

One might question how much action had been taken before this regarding the generality of antisocial behaviour in the area, but that as all else is resource limited. However, though we frequently chastise local authorities for their poor performance in street scene management and in particular the safe and rapid retrieval of discarded drug litter, the evidence here is of a prompt and effective response.

It does seem that there is a general tendency to complain first, irrespective of circumstances. Where there is some pressing need and safety issue, it is not acceptable just to wait and see in the hope that things will turn out OK, but in this case they did, and the Council were able to demonstrate the speed of their response. Well done.
 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.