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March 28th 2024

Top Level Talks

Councillor Phil Bateman said "Today I met with Superintendent Sally Bourner, Inspector Jon Turley and Wolverhampton's Chief Executive Richard Carr, who Chairs the Safer Wolverhampton Partnership."

He went onto say "We spoke at length about Ashmore Park and the actions that the police along with their partners Wolverhampton City Council and Wolverhampton Homes were undertaking to reduce the amount of low level crime that is taking place on the estate.

The police made it very clear in the meeting that the problem on the estate that had caused concern at the end of last year was well under control.

They under lined the actions they had taken to reduce incidents, and they reported that Ashmore Park was no worse than other areas of the city for this type of crime, and was indeed better than many other areas.

The police feel that whilst the problems around anti social behaviour had 'spiked' late last year, they feel that the 31 names that they and their partners had identified as being in need of an interview, with parents in attendance, was a good start and they hoped that this action would impact large on the estate.

I spoke of the need for the Police to be more expansive in informing people of the work that they were undertaking. People got frustrated when the police failed to inform communities of the work they were involved with. The meeting lasted for almost an hour!

I was very pleased to have been able to sit down around a table with such senior officials and discuss with them in very business like fashion the problems that constituents brought to me. Dealing with these issues in this type of way I hope will bring even more improvements to law and order on the estate."

This approach was designed to deal with issues, but in a better more sophisticated way,than the approach adopted recently by the local Conservative Councillor which has done much harm to community relationships following his allegations in the media.

Author: Phil Bateman

Article Date: 5th March 2008