Survey backs up drinking ban

Three weeks ago I wrote about the pointless and stupid vandalism which is taking place in parts of Fazeley and Mile Oak. You may remember I’d been asked to go and look at some of the damage and also talked, at the time, to a dozen or so residents who are really fed up with the situation.

In response to that I said I’d arrange a questionnaire survey to get an idea how widespread the problems are and use it as evidence to persuade the police and local council to enforce a drinking ban. Well, I’ve had a small team knocking on doors in the Deer Park over the last couple of weeks and we’ve now got the results.

First of all, I want to thank Cllr. Ian Lewin, one of Fazeley’s district councillors, Ben Adams and Brian Yeates, who all helped to conduct the survey. We covered 400 houses and asked everyone to complete a questionnaire on police responses to complaints, the level of anti social behaviour and whether people think there should be an alcohol ban on the streets plus some other related issues. Because the team returned to collect the completed questionnaires from houses 40 minutes after delivering them we had an excellent response to the survey with a 41% return rate. Athough time intensive, doing it the way we did, the quality of results were well worth it and I want to thank everyone in Deer Park who completed the questionnaires in person or on-line after we’d left. It was really useful.

Why are the results so useful? Basically because they back, in written evidence, what you have been saying to local councillors and others for a while. The questionnaire results confirm that in the Deer Park Road and Sambar Road area there is alcohol related anti social behaviour. Far from it getting better as the police think, the reason they aren’t getting as many complaints as they were 12 months ago is because people don’t think anything will be done if they do report incidents and so they aren’t bothering.

The positive news is that the questionnaire we’ve done is great evidence. I think it’s people power in action and I’ll be furious if nothing is done about the problems. Actually I think it will be. I’ve had initial talks with the Authorities concerned and they are saying the evidence is useful evidence. The key results suggest that over 70% of local people believe that alcohol leads to anti social behaviour and over 85% of people would support our campaign for a public drinking ban in the Deer Park / Sambar Road area. It aslo shows that over half the people questioned thought it pointless to report yobbish behaviour to police because of a lack of action.

Now, let’s understand this. As I’ve said before, Fazeley isn’t the Bronx. Most of the time it is a pleasnt place to live. That said, on some evenings when young people have had a few too many drinks it is not pleasant in places. Low level crime and yobbishness is plagueing a small area of Deer Park and that is where I intend to make sure that action is taken. I want to see a greater police presence at key problem times and I do want to see parts of the area designated as zones where drinking is prohibited by the police. That is my aim and that is what I will ensure happens.

I see no reason at all why law abiding local people should have to put up with nonsence from a few loud mouthed and often drunk youngsters causing grief into the early hours of the morning. I’ve got a couple of meetings comining up with regard to this and I’ll let you know how I get on.

Ian, Brian and Ben will be starting to survey parts of Mile Oak along the same lines in the next week or so.

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