VANDALISM

[Stanley]

VANDALISM

4 June 2005

We live in an age of the jargon of ‘initiatives’, ‘consultations’ and ‘programmes’. Every aspect of society touched by government has had a fair share. All are aimed at ‘efficiency’ and ‘improvement of delivery’, policing our towns is no exception. What I want to know is how efficient measurement of outcomes is. (They’ve got me at it now!)
I went for my paper this Saturday morning in Barnoldswick and found a scene of destruction, hanging baskets torn down, litter bins upended and the contents scattered around, road works barriers removed and some warning signs completely destroyed. I’ll give you a method of ‘measurement of outcomes’, if this scale of disruption is possible on a Friday night when any sensible person knows the consumption of alcohol and the chance of such behaviour is increased, policing has failed. Leave aside the constant drip feed of smashed shop windows, rowdy behaviour and the general lack of respect for property, this mornings crop of vandalism is more serious.
What makes it more shocking is that after all the effort which has gone into organising the visit of the French Market and associated activities and the installation only last week of the hanging baskets in the town, it seems the events have been deliberately sabotaged.
I can't begin to fathom the thought processes of whoever it is that has perpetrated this mindless destruction, I don’t see any point in even trying. Forget the jargon and spin, can we please have some effective supervision of the town and target the very few individuals involved. Don’t give me a lecture about the rules of evidence and procedure. Find a way of making them realise that if they discomfit the normal well-behaved citizens of the town, their lives will be made uncomfortable as well.
I want to make it clear that in ‘well-behaved citizens’ I include the hundreds of young people who go out at weekend simply to have a good time and cause very little trouble to anyone. I am certain that there is a hard core of offenders, I am equally certain that the police know who they are. Can we please see a glimmer of imagination and some enterprising policing of the situation. What is certain is that unless this is done things will escalate as they have done over the last ten years. It’s time for some very serious thought at a high level. Oh, and by the way, don’t bother giving the ‘initiative’ a name and sending for the press, just get on with the job.
4 June 2005