The second meeting of the new Acocks Green ward Police Tasking meetings took place this thursday, ably chaired by Sgt Dave Mirams who deployed his amusing dry wit several times during the meeting.

The lastest crime data from the ward – for the month of July – was relatively encouraging as Acocks Green has not seen the usual spike in burglaries from opportunistic criminals taking advantage of windows left open in the warmer summer days. There were 20 burglaries (2 on the Yarnfield, 2 on the Stockfield and 7 on the Gospel). There were 18 vehicle crimes, mostly in Douglas, Alexander and Malvern Roads, which are thought to have been the work of one criminal as the spate of offences ceased when an arrest was made. There were 9 shop thefts (8 in the Village, one in Fox Hollies), and 2 robberies (one in the Village and one in Fox Hollies). 

However it is noteworthy that in the first week of August there have been two armed robberies in the Village. These were unrelated incidents, one on Argos and the other a particularly nasty machette attack on Ladbrokes. The police are hopeful of arresting the gang that committed the Ladbrokes robbery soon.

There were 53 Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) crimes, mainly concentrated in known trouble spots – Sgt Mirams highlighted Wetherfield / Sunningdale Roads, Roydon / Tavistock Roads, Tibland Road, Fox Green Crescent and Northanger Road as areas that have had high levels of incidents in the past month and much of the rest of the meeting consisted of discussions about these areas.

There was some good news with the seizure of a mini moped from The Gospel, the arrest of a suspected drug dealer in the Stockfield and declines in ASB in some roads. In other areas ASB is proving much more difficult to reduce and ongoing work will be needed by the police and council officers.

The next Tasking Meeting will be at 7pm on Thursday 2nd September in Archbishop Ilsley School (entrance by the side of Jeffries Hardware) – indeed all future meetings will be at the same time, on the first thursday of the month, in the same location.