‘I wouldn’t go in after dark... or even some areas in day’

BRITAIN’S parks face becoming no-go areas if they are allowed to decline.

A hard- hitting report by MPs last year warned that parks could revert to the ‘disaster’ of the 1980s and 1990s when drug-taking and anti-social behaviour were rife.

Residents in Chelmsford, Essex, have raised concerns about increasing crime at Admirals Park, above.

Official figures show a 50 per cent increase in crime in the park between 2016 and 2017, while reports of violent and sexual offences doubled last year.

Margaret Moy, whose corner shop near the park has suffered two armed robberies in the past year, said: ‘There is drug dealing going on and it is attracting a certain type of person.

‘The last time two men in balaclavas came into the shop and threatened me with a meat cleaver. They took £80 from the till and ran off into the park.

‘We’ve had the shop for 12 years with no problems – but in the space of a year we’ve had two robberies.’

Liberal Democrat councillor Jude Deakin said she had appealed in vain to Chelmsford City Council for CCTV costing £15,000 to be installed to monitor the park’s entrance.

She added: ‘It is a lovely park and it’s vital we do everything we can to protect it.

‘It’s getting worse. I wouldn’t go there after dark, and there are certain parts which are probably best avoided even during the day.

‘We have seen a spike of robberies and break-ins in houses around the park recently and reports of strange people hanging about near back gardens.

‘ It all goes hand in hand with the drug dealing that is going on.’