The evidence of certain issues that have come out will mean I can now have more meetings with the police and Local Authority to ensure appropriate actions are taken in the area.

We intend to cover the whole of Fazeley and Mile Oak in due course with similar questionnaires.

Thanks to all who helped out.

Although planned to be a more strategic orientated meeting I took the opportunity to talk about Mile Oak and Fazeley specifically.

I’m very pleased to confirm it is high on their agenda and they too are concerned at an apparent raising in the public’s tollerance levels as opposed to a reduction in Anti Social Behaviour and low level crime.

It is clear that there is a real determination to work with other public agencies to tackle the causes of this as well as use enforcement where appropriate.

I was pleased with what I heard and we’ve talked about a number of initiatives moving forward.

Over the next couple of weeks I’m arranging for questionnaires on key issues to be delivered to households. It starts, weather permitting, tomorrow.

I encourage people to complete them as honestly as possible please.

The possibility of a localised public drinking ban is still in place but the police need more data so I would urge the public to not give up on the police and to continue to report all incidents of criminal damage etc. The police cannot work in isolation and they need the publics help with stopping these incidents.

On the whole Fazeley and Mile Oak is a very pleasant place to live and it’s a shame that incidents like this have to be reported but hopefully with the new youth centre and the rebuilt community centre in Mile Oak things will keep improving.

Cllr Ian Lewin

John Wedrychowski’s suggestions for influencing the youths concerned (“We are hoping to make positive engagement with some of the youths involved by trying to provide them with some really meaningful activities will give them hope and an opportunity to then gain employement and the feelings of self respect and social responsibility that generally comes with it”) are excellent and constructive and a pleasant change from the “lock them up and throw away the key” approach. Why, though, does it have to be “us” who make the effort to do what the parents of the youths involved have failed to do?

There is one aspect of the problem which has not yet been mentioned which is the role of parents in controlling the behaviour of their children. When you have children you assume a responsibility, for your lifetime, for their welfare and behaviour. If one of my sons, both of whom are over 30 and left home a long-while ago, gets into trouble with the law it will be my responsibiliy for not having given them a good enough example to follow, or enough sense of self-worth to value what people think of them and,logically, what people think of the upbringing they were given by their parents. If they ran into serious financial problems, I would feel it my responsibility as a parent to help them as much as I could.

The main point I want to make is that, when you have children, you take on responsibilities to them, and to society at large, whether you like it or not! Society, i.e. other people, have the right to expect you to do your utmost to carry out those responsibilities and, if you wont do so, to take action against you. The sort of action to be taken can be the subject of another debate.

I believe that “parents are responsible for the behaviour of their children,at all times”.

Does anybody else agree?

i would also like to know why this petition was never brought to my attention and what about the people of manor rd do they know that this petition was going ahead

Some of the anti-social behaviour in past months took place on Deer Park Estate. The youths concerned used the alleyway that links |Mile Oak to Fazeley over bourne brook bridge to come into Deer Park, and to make a sharp exit when police were called. You show a photograph of that alleyway on your blog.

For the past few months the alleyway has been closed during the construction o f some Homezone properties and while some youths do still use the bridge, and still come into Deer Park this way, it is not now a fast escape route.

This has also meant that the range of the few badly behaved individuals has been limited and their bad behaviour will have had a more noticeable effect in Mile Oak.

The residents of Deer Park Road and Reindeer Road have sent two petitions to the appropriate people in LDC asking that the alleyway and the bridge remain closed when the house are complete, but we have had no reply.

Alleyways are associated with crime, particularly assault, rape and to a much lesser degree murder.

We are hoping to make positive engagement with some of the youths involved by trying to provide them with some really meaningful activities will give them hope and an opportunity to then gain employement and the feelings of self respect and social responsibility that generally comes with it.

We want to do this both through the youth centre at Mile Oak and the Fazeley and District initiative.

While we try to do this, it is absolutley essential that people are able to lead normal lives, without being threatened or intimidated and without abuse ordamage to property.

Kevin Stackhouse (our local CSO) has been excellent in the work he has done, but his presence alone is not sufficient.

A real firm police prescence and some firm action are both necessary – in addition to what the local community is trying to do to help itself.

Lets not forget the huge effort that went in to the recent opening of the Youth Centre facility at Mile Oak. This sort of thing has to be helped to flourish, not to be suppressed by the bad behaviour of just a few.

Thank you for starting this debate via your blog.

John Wedrychowski