Lawlessness in Woodley

I have been speaking to local residents in Woodley and have been shocked at the level of lawlessness going on in the town.

There are drug dealers openly walking around in the Woodley

Town Centre who make out they are homeless while living in a home. Some walking around and known to be doing what they are doing.

People are shoplifting openly, blatantly in front of my eyes in Greggs stealing baguettes and some going into Peacocks and helping themselves to clothing.

Now; where are the police in all this?

We do not see regular patrolling and have not for a long, long time.

They are stretched I’m told. Well, why is that? Oh, the budget has been cut by the Conservatives over a prolonged period of time.

It’s time to stand up for the silent majority. We want more patrols.

The police service is genuinely stretched; the officers are honourable people doing a very difficult job, let down by Matthew Barber the Commissioner who has photos in the Woodley Town Centre but can’t manage a whelk stall.

Where is the policing budget? When criminals can have free lunches in restaurants and assault staff, thieves openly steal from shops and our cars at night and sell drugs to our teenagers things have gone too far.

I am disgusted by what I see in my community; police who can’t/won’t patrol.

A police commissioner who doesn’t know what he’s doing and Councillors who play political games while our local community suffers.

I am outraged at the complacency and incompetence.

Come on we can all do better than this in Woodley and in Wokingham.

I for one want a community and society to be proud of and this isn’t it. Greg Bello, Councillor, Woodley

Town Council.