Newark and Sherwood’s Police Inspector has vowed to carry on listening to what the community wants after switching up the area’s policing priorities.

A need to stop troublemakers in and around the town centre and keep the district’s rural roads safe are demands regularly heard by our Neighbourhood Policing Teams

While calls to reduce antisocial behaviour (ASB) are hardly new for #Newark, the recent spike in offending in the Bridge Ward area just outside the town centre certainly is.

Meanwhile, there have been increasing demands to stop car cruising and speeding across the district’s rural areas before the issue has a chance to get out of hand.

Based on this community feedback, Inspector Charlotte Ellam has decided to change from the previous three policing priority areas and focus on these two issues instead.

“The public have told us they want us to spend more of our time cracking down on ASB in the Bridge Ward and making our roads safer, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” she said.

“We review our policing priorities every three months or so, and always consider the feedback we get in from our communities about the areas they think we should focus on more.

“At the end of the day, that in a nutshell is what neighbourhood policing is all about, so we’ll be making a concerted push to target both these issues in the lead up to the new year.”

The Sherwood team has received multiple reports of car cruising around the Rainworth Bypass recently, as well as concerns around speeding on the vast area of country roads across the district.

Motorists should expect to spot more police cars in and around the rural roads over the next few months in response to this, with the hope being this increased presence puts off dodgy driving.

Inspector Ellam said:

“While we’ll be continuing to support the operations we normally do around this time of the year, like Community Speedwatch and the drink-driving campaign, we’ll be doing lots more work on the roads too.

“As well as conducting extra targeted patrols to dissuade bad driving and enforce the speed limits, our officers will also be taking part in force-wide operations focused on stopping car cruising in our areas too.

“People have the right to want the roads in and around where they live to be safe, and we certainly want that too as a neighbourhood policing team, so that’s the sole motivation behind all this work.”

Providing a visible presence on the streets will also be a key tactic used by our Newark officers to try and deter continued incidents of ASB from happening around the town, specifically in the Bridge Ward.

The neighbourhood team has had some recent successes on this front – working closely with Newark and Sherwood District Council to target problem addresses and suspected troublemakers too.

These collaborative efforts have started to bear fruit, with the council and police securing multiple closure orders in the Yorke Drive estate in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, a civil injunction was last month issued against an individual well-known in the area who we suspect to be a key player in causing fear and intimidation within the community.

The Bridge Ward area has seen a recent spike in ASB reports, with the hope being that selecting this issue as the specific policing priority for Newark will help reverse this trend.

“Tackling ASB has been one of our main policing priorities in Newark for some time now, and we have had some successes on that front with overall levels dropping by 14 per cent in the last year,” said Insp Ellam.

“We are conscious of a recent increase in reports in the Yorke Drive area and wider Bridge Ward though, so it makes sense for us to look to target this over the coming months.

“As part of this, we will be providing an even more visible policing presence in these areas, with a specific focus on individuals and properties who we’ve received concerns about.

“The closure order and civil injunction recently secured in partnership with the council represented huge steps forward in hopefully addressing these issues, but we’re conscious more still needs to be done.”

The Newark and Sherwood District Commander added:

“As I say, a lot more work is planned over the next few weeks, with a particular focus on providing that crime deterrent by having our officers out in the community.

“Our dedicated ASB car will be back out conducting extra patrols of hotspot areas, including around Newark town centre where it’s likely to be busy in the run up to the Christmas period.

“We know this is an issue that is important to our communities, so we will continue to listen to their views and look to take action alongside our partners to make Newark and Sherwood even better places to live.”