Complaints lodged over police handling of park issues
Councillors angry at way incidents dealt with
OFFICIAL complaints have been lodged over “serious failures of the Leicestershire Constabulary in a duty of care” after a spate of violent incidents at Barwell Tip Park.
Two parish councillors have put in the grievance to the Independent Police Complaints Commission and are also planning to express their concern to the new police and crime commissioner.
Cllr Jim Buck and Cllr Russell Roberts say efforts by themselves and others to tackle anti-social behaviour at the park are being hampered by the inability of police to respond.
The park, next to Barwell Recycling Centre, appears to be a magnet for drug-taking as well as dumping ground for debris discarded after raids on the tip.
Councillors say breakins are continual and while they are striving to patrol the area and clean up the litter their work seems in vain due to lack of effective support.
Cllr Roberts said the latest incident on Friday saw him and Cllr Buck threatened and intimidated by two known offenders who already have police community notices (PCNs) banning them from the park.
He said as well as hurling abuse and threats one of the men who had a golf club - despite playing golf being outlawed in the park - began aiming balls at them.
The pair had already called the police control room at around 8.15pm to report the presence of the offenders. Two 999 calls followed with no turn-out and they left, feeling unsafe.
They claim another call to the control room took 16 minutes to be answered and afterwards they spotted another offender passing on the way to the tip who is already facing community service for breaking his PCN twice by stealing from the tip or being within half a mile of it.
Cllr Roberts said: “This isn’t untypical of the Leicestershire Constabu- lary’s response to previous call to either people breaking into the tip of shouting abuse at park users, littering in the park by chucking rubbish about, emptying bins we’d just filled, playing prohibited sports in the park, drug taking in the park, selling drugs and threatening behaviour
“We both felt totally let down by the Leicestershire Constabulary and failed in a duty of care to respond to two emergency calls. There is absolutely no point in placing these offenders on a watch list, serving them with PCNs, if they are not going to be enforced. It is going to be a matter of time before there is a serious incident and someone gets hurt or someone takes the law into their own hands out of frustration.”
The concerns come despite measures taken by police to thwart criminal activity with two men already dealt with via community resolutions and another due in court.
A police spokesman said they were conducting an investigation into the councillors’ allegations of antisocial behaviour and threats and the matter was being treated as one of public disorder. They added the high volume of other incidents at the time meant the councillor was given personal safety advice and told an officer would visit him over the weekend. Both councillors have now been spoken to.