£550,000 bid to close off the dodgy alleys
ALLEYWAYS in Sutton-in-ashfield will be closed off to tackle antisocial behaviour and cut crime.
Ashfield District Council has received £550,000 from the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund that will help provide more CCTV cameras, better street lighting and new number plate recognition technology in New Cross.
The council will also close alleyways seen as hotspots for antisocial behaviour.
Councillor Samantha Deakin, the council’s portfolio holder for parks, town centres and neighbourhood services, and Ashfield Independents ward member for Sutton Central and New Cross, said: “Outram Street is a road that runs right the way through town. We do get antisocial behaviour up here and it is daunting as well.
“We have a lot of alleyways as well.
“They’re just a haven for antisocial behaviour. They’re a haven for people trying to escape who the police are after, all that kind of stuff.”
Garden Lane is seen as one of the more dangerous places with an alleyway that often attracts trouble. But Councillor Deakin says it will be a tricky place to get a gating order for.
“Garden Lane is a different sort of one because there are older people at one end, so if they close that then they have to walk all the way around, so it’s handy for them.
“But then in the evening it’s that place that’s out of the way and it’s that place where people can’t see you, so that’s where the anti-social behaviour happens.
“The officers have been really good, they’ve worked really hard on this stuff just to make sure it feels as safe as the town centre.
“It can be challenging. Antisocial behaviour is something we’ve tackled and something that we’ve worked on.
“There’s a car park (New Cross Street) and the street lights are just a little bit poor; so it’s somewhere that we can just brighten up a little bit and just give it that feeling of being safer.
“You can see that this car park is very frequently used day and night, but the lighting is just poor for it.
“So we want to get some more lighting here which will brighten things up and bring a bit of safety for people walking and when they’re parking.”
The funding bid was submitted along with other partnership agencies that make up the Ashfield Community Safety Partnership.
Residents living around New Cross have also expressed concerns about criminal activity going on around them.
People have spoken out in favour of the new Safer Streets fund.
Rob Craven, a 62-year-old plumber who lives in Garden Lane, said: “Anything that the council is doing to try and improve the area is well worth a go.
“To be honest, we’ve had no end of problems.
“It is what it is really – it’s just the state of our society at the moment.
“Obviously at night time alleyways and areas with no lighting can be dangerous around here.
“For me it wouldn’t bother me much but when you take a walk through here you realise it’s especially bad for women and girls.
“I have a daughter that used to walk through here but now goes a different way because it can be dangerous.
“Everywhere you go you get bad apples – I think that’s the same in all areas.
“Around here there is a bit of an undercurrent of crime and social deprivation.”
Charmaine Havenhand, 38, who does voluntary work for the Salvation Army, said: “I do think that the area needs that.
“Christmas, I think, is the worst time of the year for everybody.
“There are some areas that aren’t safe and where people don’t feel safe on the streets anymore.
“I struggle to get out of the house every now and again.
“There doesn’t need to be that many alleys.”
The council says that it hopes to develop more safe spaces in the area where young people can socialise safely.