Change in police priorities for area
Drug abuse and hare coursing no longer seen as top problems
DRUGS and hare coursing will no longer be top priorities for Hungerford police, community officer Pc Claire Drewitt has revealed.
The decision was announced at the annual town meeting on Thursday, March 17.
Pointing to reduced crime figures in these areas following successful campaigns, Pc Drewitt told residents and town councillors: “Previous consultation showed that drugs and hare coursing were the issues most affecting you.”
However, she said that during the past six months there had been only six instances of drug-related activity and added: “This will have had little impact on the community and so we are going to remove drugs as a priority and deal with it on a day-to-day basis.”
Pc Drewitt went on: “Similarly with hare coursing: we have worked very hard and conducted regular patrols in rural areas of concern. We now have the rural text alert system going out to everyone in the rural community. This has been very, very successful and we will continue to run that.
“As a result, hare coursing has reduced dramatically and is now seen in very few instances - this season, anyway. We're therefore removing that from our priorities for the time being.”
She announced that a new public consultation to determine current local policing priorities will be held on Wednesday, April 27, in Hungerford Tesco car park.
There will also be a weekend consultation and more details will be announced soon.
Pc Drewitt said: “We want as many people as possible to tell us their concerns and we can then look at ways ot tackling the issues raised. We will be there all day.”
She also announced that she and her colleagues planned to crack down on speeding in Hungerford and said: “We're starting a series of SIDs (speed indicator devices) operations. We will be identifying problematic roads and estates and will work with West Berkshire Council to try to reduce the problem. We will be starting in the next couple of weeks and continuing for around six months.”
