Lack of investment behind crime spike
AHALTON public safety chief has blamed a lack of funding to buy extra mobile Stryker cameras as a key factor in the borough’s recent wave of violent crime.
Cllr Dave Cargill (community safety) said antisocial behaviour (ASB) was a problem in Runcorn and Widnes and tended to move elsewhere once it had been tackled in one area.
He said funding had been made available to buy two mobile Stryker cameras, one for each town, to monitor trouble and he said these were usually effective but not enough cash was available to boost coverage.
The council, police and fire service also had all had their budgets cut.
Runcorn has been hit by a wave of violent crime and robbery in recent weeks and months.
A 71-year-old man was subjected to a terrifying knifepoint attempted robbery at the hands of a gang of youths on Main Street on Monday, November 6, close to where a 45-yearold man was robbed by a duo wielding a knife and a baseball bat.
On Sunday, November 5, a 51-year-old man was hit on the back of the head as two thugs tried to steal his bicycle on Stenhills Crescent.
In an unrelated incident a man and a boy were charged with possessing knives following a police search at Rock Park off Union Street on Saturday, November 4.
Viewing of the Halton fireworks at Halton Castle is rumoured to have been ruined by intoxicated louts trying to start fights.
Police received reports of a gang wearing clown masks and riding motorbikes terrorising Hallwood Park as children were trick or treating on Hallowe’en.
A teenager needed hospital treatment after being attacked on a footbridge between Halton Lodge and Hallwood Park.
A knife-wielding thug robbed a man waiting at a bus stop in Palacefields on Wednesday, October 25.
Four boys were reported to have attacked a 13-yearold girl in Phoenix Park on Sunday, October 22.
An 18-year-old man was arrested and released under investigation after a man was brutally beaten in Halton Lodge on Thursday, April 6.
Windows were smashed across the town on October 30, while a police car had its windscreen smashed in Widnes on the same night.
The scale of youth crime could be higher also if perpetrators in some incidents have appeared older than they are.
Cllr Cargill said monthly meetings take place with the police for updates on the situation and to look at how to deal with it.
He said: “It’s something which is on the move, anti-social behaviour.
“We have spates in Murdishaw and Asda car park and around Brookvale and it comes up and dies down for a bit and falls off again.
“It is something we keep track of on both sides of the river – we’ve had problems at Upton Rocks as well and particularly around the shops.
“We talk about it each month, we have a tasking co-ordination group.
“One of the things we use is a Stryker camera and we have two of those, they put them up for a cer- tain amount of time and usually it’s effective and it dies down and we have to move them somewhere else. “It’s extremely difficult.” On the need for more cameras he said: “We could do with two or three more, they’re about £10,000 each.
“Things are not getting better, they’re getting worse and worse.
“What we can do is try to keep a lid on it.
“It’s possible to do in certain areas.” ●