Town centre vandalism getting out of control?

No point spending £60 million on it if it will be wrecked in 12 months and companies are put off opening up in the town.

http://www.barnsleychronicle.com/article/businesses-hit-out-at-town-centre-antisocial-behaviour

 

I think we should give these unfortunate smackheads and alcos a nice cuddle and a bit of understanding. If you then later find them in your wife's jewellery box or going through your kids bedrooms we should show understanding and help toward their rehabilitation. Put any negative feelings about the fact that you and the wife spend over a hundred hours at work whilst they choose to not bother contributing anything but misery and upheaval to society and show compassion. It's not their fault that they have to intimidate shoppers and tax mobile phones off teens going about their business, it's our job to earn more taxes to hand over to them to waste. Perhaps if we paid more tax, we could provide more free entertainment for them and they wouldn't be forced into vandalism through boredom.

 

You make a lot of good points there

but the alternative to rehabilitation is prison and you know how much we tax payers are forking out for that.

Or would you prefer a harsher regime like say Sharia Law and chop their hands off? Medical costs, lifetime of disability benefit etc etc.

I'm not having a go at you, I honestly don't know what the solution is either mate.

 

Drug addiction should be treated primarily as a health issue rather than a criminal issue. Stick em in prison without proper rehabilitation programmes and they will just reoffend as soon as they get out.

 

The anti-social chavs who blight the town centre with their behaviour are a big problem. I hardly ever go into town anymore because it is a sh**hole and they are a big part of the problem.

 

And yet all this happens just a few hundred yards from the town's main police station.

The solution for me is for the police to bring a bigger presence into the town. I would say there are two main areas that need addressing, peel square (coincidentally where the cheap pubs are) and the bus station. Peel square has empty units around it and the bus station has units in it. Stick a couple of police officers in an empty unit at peel square and a couple in a unit in the bus station and it will go a long way to cutting the problems. The net thing to do is to drive the betting shops out of the town.

 

Why not have Policemen patrol the town centre

 

Earlier this season I met a couple of my old school mates for a pint before the match. Overall there were 5 kids with us. The police videoed us entering the pub, whilst inside the pub and leaving the pub for the match. During our half hour in the pub we witnessed 2 fights amongst the reprobates in the India gardens doorway, both resulted in one of them being knocked to the ground in front of the Saturday shoppers. 1 out of the 4 officers present eventually went over to the group and sent half of them away with half staying put. By the time we left for the football, the group were reunited and arguing again. This was ignored by the law as they were concentrating on filming 3 families walking to a football match.

 

They do patrol in town, in pairs. However, they're always patrolling in the areas where no trouble occurs - well away from where any policing needs to be done.

 

I am friends with the owners of Annie Murrays and the police know who robbed the place. Just for clarity they aren't foreign or smackheads. And I think they same people smashed Frank Birds windows .

 

Why not switch the fecking CCTV back on. I've heard that CCTV has been part of BMBC cost cutting, that's one of the costs that shouldn't be cut, it's driving businesses away from the town centre. The owner of Parkway Cinema is also considering pulling the plug on it due to anti-social behaviour, he's had his windows smashed, the flower shop and café across from the post office is always getting broken into and she's always having to board it up. Businesses don't stand a chance.

The new town centre will be like a scene from the Walking Dead in 2020.

 

Its that in barnsley to get smashed on cheap ale you dont even need to visit a pub.

 

The problem with switching the cctv back on is that the council due to budget cuts are struggling to provide the basic legal statutory services that they must provide. The choice is that stark. In terms of Police it's an interesting one. Again you have budget cuts and you get the service you are able/willing to pay for I guess.

I travel across England and Barnsley is no worse or better than average. The problem it has not got anything to really make people visit. I live locally but have been to central London more this year than Barnsley (other than for the footie. Hopefully the regeneration project will address this but I'm not holding my breath.

 

The Dutch prison crisis: A shortage of prisoners - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37904263

A different view and much more successful

 

That's true anywhere in UK.

Sorry to put a spanner in your usual Barnsley bashing but I'm sure there'll be plenty of other opportunities.

And no this isn't a sticking up for the knob heads post.

 

B0llocks, stick them in a prison with no drugs and no access to drugs and they might get clean, then you can teach them a trade.

 

Think about what you've typed - it's not very different from what I've suggested apart from the use of "prison". You are suggesting that we need to get these people clean and teach them life skills which will rehabilitate them and allow them to meaningfully reintegrate with society, and that doing so will decrease the chance of them reoffending. I agree with that fully.

What I don't agree with is that this process must take place in prison. A prison without drugs is a nice idea, but ultimately unrealistic. Drugs are available in prison, always have been and probably always will be. I think it would be better to treat addicts in smaller, specialised centres focused more on rehabilitation than punishment. Smaller centres would make it easier to prevent the flow of contraband, as would separating addicts from "harder" criminals.

 

I never said it wasnt. However when youve got over a dozen off licences excluding the lidls,icelands and quality save within half a mile of the town hall in a town centre that is blighted by alchol abuse then you tighten up on the on street drinking. Enforce stricter licening laws. Turn it around on shop keeps who keep them in ale... not keep granting more licences.

 

And in the meantime they can continue to burgle people's houses leaving hardworking families frightened of a reoccurrence

 

I don't understand how that is a response to my post. In the meantime to what? Locking addicts up in prison just takes them out of circulation for a short period but they're then back in the same position as before they went in. We should focus more on rehabilitation - simple incarceration is ridiculously short sighted and clearly doesn't work. I would propose some form of custodial rehab followed by ongoing support programmes which focus on keeping clean/acquiring skills and employment.

If you've got Netflix watch The House I Live In. It's a great documentary and an illustration of why a "war on drugs" doesn't work financially, morally or practically.