BLOG: My Community Day in Leicester

Thursday 14th November 2024

For my first appointment of the day, I met staff from the Leicester Council Community Safety Team at the Kingfisher Youth Centre in Boulder Lane.  We began with a presentation on the work of the Domestic Homicide Review Team, then moved on to discuss work that the team were doing with local youths and forthcoming festivals.  I was interested to learn of enhanced proactive preparatory work with those organising the festivals and with local residents.  This will be aimed at allowing celebrants to enjoy themselves to the full while cutting back on the few anti-social behaviour incidents that mar the event for others.  I have since raised this with the police and suggested that they ensure that they are keyed into the council’s work here.

Then I was off to Green Lane Road to talk to some of the business owners in that area of East Leicester.  This is a vibrant shopping street in Leicester which attracts large numbers of local residents and – in my opinion – should be better known further afield.  I wanted to know what the business owners thought about the local police and if they had been experiencing any changes to the level of crime.

It was great to have such in-depth conversations with so many business owners.  The highlights included:

• Parking problems
• The improved traffic flow now the road is one-way
• The area is generally low in crime
• Flytipping is very unsightly in roads near to Green Lane Road
• The police are welcome when they visit, but high visibility would be preferable
• Shoplifting has increased recently, but is still a nuisance rather than a serious problem

As I was having lunch, I got a call from my office to say that my next appointment had been cancelled. So, I got out a map of Leicester to look for an area that I had not visited recently.  The answer was Westcotes, so off I went.While in the Westcotes area I called at several houses and spoke to some random passersby. Among the issues raised by local residents were:

• Flytipping
• Attempted break ins to garages
• Pedestrians trying car doors to see if they are unlocked, and if they are stealing items from the car.
• Increases to household insurance due to the postcode seeing rise in crime recently.
• Drugs being taken quite openly on the Narborough Road area

I will be bringing these matters to the attention of the local police commander.

My final stop was on the Saffron Lane estate where the police are running a “clear, hold, build” operation.  This involves targetting criminals to bring them to justice, stopping other criminals from moving in and then building community resilience.  The operation has only just started here and I was out with officers searching parks to look for weapons, drugs or other items hidden by criminals. Obviously, the results are confidential, but I can assure you that the work was thorough and worthwhile.
It was dark by the time we finished, and the temperature was dropping.  It was time I headed off for another work meeting.

And so ended my community day in Leicester.

Rupert Matthews
Police & Crime Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland