It has become clearly obvious that we have hardly any street patrols and, at the times we have witnessed anything, there is nobody within the town centre to speak to directly and to then point them in the right direction.
Indeed, ringing the 101 contact number is both tedious and time consuming and the vast majority of times we are told that nobody is in the area (despite us citizens of Spalding being reassured that we have a dedicated PCSO patrol team for this DPPO area).
The DPPO signs are all around the town warning of what is acceptable and what is not.
But we have to question just what is the point of them when what is deemed anti-social is not acted upon by our force as anti-social?
Indeed, on Saturday and without going out of our way, we spotted a huge group of eight or nine men drinking alcohol down The Vista and The Chestnut Avenue. Also there were many on benches along the riverside and in the play area at the Castle Sports Complex area.
I am 100 per cent sure that had we patrolled the full area of the DPPO that we would have seen dozens more, all of which can be deemed as anti-social as they cause littering and intimidation.
Within the town centre and while shopping we also observed a number of pavement cyclists who were causing a nuisance and were a danger to pedestrians.
Again the call is for a more stringent approach in the use of the laws of the DPPO.
Spalding
