On a cold, wet, early February Saturday afternoon a small group of us, about 16 from the village, met in The Gap at the Baptist Church to talk about Barrow, crime and antisocial behaviour. There was a panel to answer our questions and tea, coffee, biscuits and two kinds of milk. It began at 1.15pm and finished at 2.45pm.

The panel consisted of Dr Jeevun Sandher MP who was the chairman, Mr Giuseppe Vassallo, the Community Protection and Partnerships Manager from Charnwood Borough Council, Police Community Support Officer Dash, and PC Flynn.

Jeevun Sandher kept the meeting under control by indicating when speakers from the floor could ask their questions, and by not allowing speakers to dominate with their own particular bonnet, bees-in! Over the hour and a half many subjects were discussed and it proved to be an interesting and enlightening meeting.

One of the first was the lack of visibility of the police these days. The feeling was that if more police were around there’d be less crime in the village. Police were seen in police cars, chatting to each other, sometimes parked on slip roads but rarely seen actually walking around the village doing anything to stop cars from speeding, parking on double yellow lines in the High Street, on the zigzags approaching traffic lights or in front of the chip shop (see article about Salters Lane, page 29). Speakers from the floor felt that all these factors made Barrow a more dangerous place to live in because pedestrians, especially parents with buggies, were forced to walk on the roads. It was also pointed out that when Slash Lane was flooded the village was used as a bypass and this increased speeding along certain routes and dangers from road traffic. The areas which were thought to be the worst were along Grove Lane and Melton Road, Sileby Road, Breachfield and Cotes Road. Where the speed limit rose above 30mph on these routes, it was suggested it should be lowered to 30mph and CCTV cameras installed.

The other main topic was antisocial behaviour. Many attendees gave examples of antisocial behaviour that they themselves were aware of such as a dangerous resident living in Bryan Close who was terrifying the neighbours; children setting fire to a neighbour’s wheelie bin in Shooting Close Lane; and the vandalism of play equipment in King George V Recreation Ground.

Although these were the two topics of greatest interest, there were many other serious issues raised including youth crime; shoplifting; the poor provision of youth activities in the village; the use and effectiveness of the three CCTV cameras on the High Street and one at King George V Recreation Ground; social media and phones in schools; vandalism at the railway station; dog fouling; fly-tipping, especially in Slash Lane; and litter on the verges of the A6.

Jeevun Sandher asked his panel to answer or discuss matters further as appropriate and contributed fully himself. I haven’t the space here to cover everything the panel answered but the police said they would investigate putting cameras in Melton Road, Grove Road and Breachfield Road. They pointed out that vandalism at the station didn’t fall within their remit as it was a matter for the Transport Police. Jeevun Sandher said he would write to Leicestershire County Council Highways on all the traffic-related issues raised and push for action.

In relation to antisocial behaviour, Mr Vassallo stressed that many of the issues reported in this meeting hadn’t been reported to Charnwood Borough Council and that it was very important to do so. He also pointed out that there was often confusion between what Charnwood Borough Council was responsible for and what was part of Leicestershire County Council’s responsibility. For example funding for changes involving schools, such as providing lockers for phones, was a Leicestershire County Council matter. Jeevun Sandher said he was going to write to Charnwood Borough Council on anti- social behaviour and fly tipping and work with the police on the matters raised. He is also going to write to the Department for Education about phones in schools. And of greatest importance of all he is going to keep us informed on all these matters as work on them progresses.

Gaynor Barton