Members of the Tendring Community Safety Partnership (CSP) joined forces for a number of activities aimed at improving safety in the town.
On Wednesday (14 June) Essex Police roads policing officers joined the Environment Agency and Tendring District Council’s (TDC) Licensing team for a series of road checks, clamping down on motoring offences, checking waste carriers had appropriate licences, and carrying out spot-checks on taxis.
Police reported four people for traffic offences, seized one vehicle for no insurance and issued a prohibition notice for a car found to be unroadworthy, as well as giving advice to other drivers.
TDC officers did spot checks on 19 taxis, with three warning letters issued and one referral made, while Environment Agency officers checked 40 vehicles – issuing four advice letters and one formal compliance notice.
The following day (Thursday, 15 June), a number of officers and staff from CSP agencies came together for an event in Clacton Town Square, speaking to the public, giving advice and signposting people to further support on issues ranging from domestic abuse, home security, crime prevention and water safety, to volunteering.
Friday evening (16 June) saw partners tackling issues arising from the local night-time economy, with Clacton Community Policing Team joined in Clacton town by staff from Tendring District Council’s (TDC) Community Safety Team, UTurn, Next Chapter and Save A Life Ditch The Knife.
Police community support officers patrolled with TDC anti-social behaviour patrol officers, speaking to people enjoying the evening sunshine and visiting pubs, restaurants and bars in the town centre.
TDC licensing officers carried out checks of licensed premises and taxis to make sure all were operating safely and legally – finding one suspected breach of licensing conditions and one taxi with an expired licence plate.
Awareness of drink-spiking was raised, with 100 drink covers given to pubs to hand out to customers.
Police officers conducted two stop searches, seizing a small amount of drugs from two women, aged 19 and 20, who will be issued with community resolutions.
Meanwhile staff from Next Chapter, UTurn and Save a Life Ditch The Knife spoke with people about the work their organisations do to help people and keep them safe, raising awareness of the help available to survivors of domestic abuse and the dangers of carrying a knife.
Tendring Community Policing Inspector Aaron Homatopoulos says: “Our work with our community partners over the three days was very successful.
“We work very closely with them to help keep Clacton and the rest of the Tendring district safe because policing alone cannot tackle anti-social behaviour and criminal activity.
“We rely on our communities, local authorities and other agencies to work with us to provide us with information and to help tackle the root causes of bad behaviour.
“You will often see our town centre and community policing teams patrolling with staff from our partners. These high-visibility patrols are a deterrent to people who want to cause trouble.
“And they are also an opportunity to carry out licensing and vehicle safety checks or talk to people about matters which concern them or the support available should they need it.”
Incidents of anti-social behaviour have consistently fallen in Tendring over the past five years, by more than 60 per cent. In the past year alone, they dropped by one-third and reported crime also dropped by five per cent.
Councillor Gina Placey, TDC Cabinet Member for Partnerships, added: “These three activity days show the real strength we have in our Tendring CSP, with each organisation bringing something different to the table but all collectively contributing to keeping our community safe.
“Each action day was a success in its own right, and my thanks go to all of our partners for this joint effort.”
