Crime Update February - March 09

[simon humphrey]

Montpelier –St Werburghs Beat March-April 09

CRIME UPDATE

The good news for February is that Dwelling Burglary was at its lowest point for several years, with only 3 reports for dwellings and 2 reports for shed break-ins. There has been a slight increase for March with 10 reports of dwelling burglary and 2 for shed break-ins, but this is still low.

Robberies have also remained very low with 3 for February and 3 for March with most being committed in the early hours of the morning. The dedicated Robbery Squad are looking into these.

For the months of February and March theft from motor vehicle has remained low with 11 reports for the two months. There have also been only 6 theft of motor vehicle, which again remains low.

Licensed premises are being monitored for Anti Social Behaviour, and the good news is that ‘The Old England Public House’ has had no complaints for the last two months, since all the police activity and enforcement work and the difficult work taken on by the manager / DPS at the venue, police now regularly liaise with licensee to stamp out crime.
There has been another change in management at ‘The Cadbury PH and recent issues seemed to have been resolved. I will be meeting and advising the new DPS for the premises, of local concerns and issues.

Our number one Pact Priority still remains parking issues, we have been to court recently and the offender was found guilty and received a substantially increase fine. We will continue to monitor / educate and enforce. I know that residents have stated that they have parked in this way for years, but this means that they have been committing offences for years. We are looking into ways of easing the parking issue and allowing some pavement parking, in conjunction with Bristol City Council.

Beat Surgeries for the next month are as follows Montpelier Health Centre is 24/04/09 @ 1000hrs-1100hrs and St Werburghs Community Centre 08th April 1800hrs to 1900hrs.

Next Pact Meeting is at ‘The Adult Learning Centre’ Grosvenor Road St Pauls, 6th April 2009 at 1630hrs to 1830 hrs.

[Beetle]

A pretty annoying contributory factor to the problem for pedestrians (esp ones like me of 6ft and taller) is vegetation overgrowing the path.

It is really f**king annoying when you can't walk up the path without stooping and ducking around shrubbery that people can't be bothered to trim.

On these occasions I normally find myself thinking that when I no longer have anything to care about in life, I will hire a massive hedge trimming tractor and ride the streets of Montpelier one night, neatly restoring people's bush to where it belongs.

Oh yes, bins are another problem in this instance, but I can't think of anyone to blame.

It seems so ironic that, yet again, the most sacrosanct urban space - the one offered the greatest protection by the authorities, is that reserved for cars. I think painting white lines on pavements to allow cars to use them is completely unnecessary and will just take us further from where we need to get to.

I do own a car. And a bike. Bring on the CPZ.

[simon humphrey]

Hi Dan, we will be targeting these roads shortly, Richmond is the next road to be target Hardened, this is where we the police offer to replace window locks and door locks all for FREE we will visit every address and do a quick survey of what the house needs, and then arrange a Safer Homes Van to attend with a qualified Carpenter who will do all the work. When we do this we will be putting a letter about parking through the door, it is difficult in Richmond the Dynamics have changed with multi occupancy in many homes, this means more vehicles per household. Residents could approach the council with an adopted parking scheme where a white line is painted on the footpath and vehicle can then park on the path but not over the line, therefore still providing sufficient room for a wheelchair or pushchair on the pavement and enough room for an emergency vehicle to get down the road. We will also will leatlet offending vehicles to try and educate motorists first and then later we will issue tickets, but you must remember residents have been parking this way for years and it will take some time to change.

[Dan Cook]

Hi Simon, thanks for the update. Parking is a pain in Montpelier, but even worse is trying to be a pedestrian. I'm glad jay-walking is not a crime in the UK, as most Richmond Road residents have no choice but to jay-walk the road end-to-end. I'd love to see an RPZ and militant ticketing of offending parkers, just to get them off the PAVEMENTS I PAY TAX FOR If anyone reading feels the same, try Bristol Traffic for a good dose of light relief using the medium of the lowest form of wit.