Home boarded up amid anti-social behaviour
A HOUSE on a new estate near Burton has been boarded up by police after “numerous” reports of antisocial behaviour and disorder around the property.
At least seven people around the Trent & Dove Housing home, in Ratcliffe Mews, Newton Solney, have been arrested following at least two serious incidents of alleged disorder.
One involved a group of men with baseball bats and another man armed with a sword, a witness said at the time.
As a result, the home has been closed for three months after police successfully petitioned the courts.
Trent & Dove said due to the “severity” of the incidents, it had installed 24-hour security and provided an out-of-hours contact to its specialist team who were available to help residents 24 hours a day.
In one incident at 9.30am on February 5, a 50-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of public order offences and possession of an offensive weapon. He was later released under investigation. A 20-year-old man was also arrested for public order offences and released under investigation.
In a second incident, just before midnight on May 29, Derbyshire police were called to reports of a fight at Ratcliffe Mews. A woman in her 30s was found to have suffered bruising to her face, neck and wrist. A 38-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of assault.
On Friday, June 18, following a hearing at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court, the court granted the order on the property.
The action follows work by the police’s safer neighbourhood policing team and other agencies to target community concerns around antisocial behaviour, disorder and drug use.
Sergeant Adrian Pegg, who leads the Mercia safer neighbourhood policing team, said: “Anti-social behaviour can have a real negative impact on people’s lives, and over the past five months other residents in that area have reported suffering as a result of disorder at this property.
“We work closely with partner agencies to target anti-social behaviour and I would urge anyone with concerns to report them to the police so that we can investigate and take appropriate action where necessary.”
The property is closed until September 18, and breaching the closure order without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment and/or a fine.
Rachel Chudley, neighbourhoods director at Trent & Dove, said: “Taking such serious action such as this closure order is always a last resort.
“Unfortunately, the level of (alleged) antisocial behaviour, in this case, was of a particularly violent nature. This, combined with a repeated refusal to act responsibly and work with us, forced us to take action to protect the wider community. We are delighted on behalf of other residents that the closure order has been secured, and we hope that they can once again enjoy their homes and the wider community in peace and safety.
“I’d like to thank them for their support to our team as we built the case, and also thank the police and other partners for their work with us in particular Sgt Pegg, PC Bancroft and the safer neighbourhood police team, with whom we worked very closely throughout this process.”
Anti-social behaviour can have a real negative impact on people’s lives.
Sergeant Adrian Pegg