The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Concern over rising anti-social behaviour
Ortons residents report number of incidents
A Peterborough councillor has expressed her concern at the rising level of anti-social behaviour in the Ortons over the past week.
The concern was raised by Green Party Councillor for Orton Waterville Cllr Julie Howell after receiving a number of reports from residents as well as seeing the evidence firsthand on ward walks alongside Orton Waterville Community Volunteer and Parish Councillor Kirsty Knight.
Over the weekend (March 27-28), a number of garden walls and bus stops in Orton Brimbles were hit by vandals, who spray painted a distinctive black tag onto them. As well as this, signs of anti-social behaviour were found in The Gannocks, Orton Waterville. Remnants of a fire were discarded, along with a large piece of carpet, a large amount of other litter as well as what appear to be homemade swings suspended from trees in the wooded area.
Cllr Howell has asked the council to clean the graffiti from the side of any councilowned property and has asked private tenants who need advice on removal to get in touch. The Gannocks incident has also been reported to the parish council, who manage the area, and are overseeing the clean-up.
Both of these incidents have come after Cllrs Howell and Knight responded to a tipoff from a resident on March 21 about a number of toilet seats having been dumped in Debdale Pond in Orton Waterville.
The pair fished out eight toilet seats in what was an especially unusual find given that the pond is only accessible by foot, therefore it is not possible to pull up in a van and just dump the contents, which is the suspected cause of the growing number of fly-tips in the city since the start of lockdown last year.
Cllr Howell said: “It looked like it came from someone in the refurbishment business and it was probably done by someone who knows of the spot. I just can’t understand how they got there- why would they do that? I think it is a very ignorant thing to do.
“I would like to thank local residents for alerting me to the anti-social behaviour, incidents of this type in public spaces seems to be increasing.”