Plea for crackdown on vandalism (From This is Hampshire)
When news happens, text SDE and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
Plea for crackdown on vandalism
6:50am Friday 12th March 2010 in
AN Andover man who has been forced to fork out £3,000 of his own money repairing his vandalised property is calling on the council to take action.
Vic Pain, of Trajan Walk, says the area has been plagued by yobs in the past three years who have smashed his car windows and thrown vodka bottles at his house.
Mr Pain’s car came under attack again at the end of last month when a gang of youths slashed tyres on dozens of vehicles in Trajan Walk and Roman Way.
Yobs have also climbed his roof, knocked down walls, torn down fencing, stolen plant pots, thrown scaffolding poles into gardens and set cars alight.
Now Mr Pain is calling on the council to install CCTV to help police identify the culprits.
“This has gone on long enough,” he said.
“CCTV will identify those doing the vandalism.
“I’d just spent £270 on two new car tyres and then I discovered they’d been slashed. It’s affecting us financially and we’ve had enough.”
Mr Pain claims the gangs start their crime sprees in Trajan Walk before moving through the rest of the estate.
“There are three lampposts in our car park area that overlook the road,” he said.
“A camera could be put on each of them and it would be the first step in identifying just who is doing all this. They need to be stopped.”
A Test Valley Borough Council spokesman said the incidents in the Roman Way area were being investigated by police and the council was working closely with them.
“The Community Safety Partnership has met and discussed issues faced by residents, and while it is too early to identify one particular solution, police and the councils’ wardens have increased patrols in the area and this has had a positive effect,” he added.
PC Samantha Aymes, beat manager for Roman Way, said: “Police are aware of the antisocial behaviour in Roman Way.
“There’s not going to be an immediate solution but we’re putting in place ongoing plans such as setting up initiatives with the local children and stepping up our patrols.
“We do encourage people to report any incident to us, no matter how small, as their information is valuable.”
More Andover stories
Most popular
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
The Debt Collector says...
7:55pm Fri 12 Mar 10
My brother lives in Chelmsford and has reported a four fold increase in the issues regarding vandalism to private property, in particular to fencing.
It would appear that the Police are not taking the matter seriously and the Council rely increasingly on CCTV Cameras. Regrettably these machines have seem to have little effect in resolving the issue, merely record it.
What is required is a increase in proper Policing with proper officers who have powers of full arrest, which a PCSO does not. The latter only have the common law right of Citizens Arrest.
It would be helpful if the CCTV which is being used for easy targets such as cars travelling 5 MPH over the limit or other activity where concentrated on areas which are not easily observed such as housing estates. Even so, these need to be monitored more closely and Officers available on rapid response, which the CCTV could provide if used correctly, instead of being utilised as money raising gadgets for local Government.