Hucknall police to make tackling anti-social behaviour a top priority again

Earlier this year, Insp Jon Hewitt outlined his priorities for tackling crime in in Hucknall and said his main three priorities were drugs, bad driving and theft in the town.

At the time, he said ASB would not be a main priority at that point, but stressed that work to combat it would be ongoing.

However, writing in his blog on the Ashfield Police Facebook page, Insp Hewitt said there would now be a switch in focus with ASB being placed ahead of theft as one of his three main priorities again.

He said: “With consistency between surveys and very much what is highlighted to me day to day with conversations with the public and partners, drug dealing will remain a priority, as will dangerous driving including speeding and nuisance motorbikes.

"Theft from motor vehicles in Hucknall have decreased since being raised so whilst we continue to do work on this, the third priority will return to anti-social behaviour.

"In relation to to drug dealing the Operation Reacher team has continued to obtain good results through the month.

"We have conducted several warrants in Hucknall as part of the drive to push dealers out of our Ashfield towns.

"As always, this will only be successful if we can also reduce the demand for drugs, so if you have friends or family or even yourself are struggling with misuse and do not know where to turn you can talk to officers in a non-judgemental manner.

"We will help with referrals for drug treatment.

“We are continuing with our Fatal 4 operations and I am really pleased that Ashfield Council has agreed to install CCTV out at junction 27 of the M1 (for Hucknall and Annesley).

"I think most people would agree the car cruising has been an issue for far too long at the location.

" It has often been difficult for us to respond as we would like with gatherings at our most busy times or when officers are keeping people safe during night-time economy.

"These cameras will allow us to deal with offences retrospectively, so breaches of the Public Spaces Protection Order, Section 59s and other traffic offences will all be used for offences caught on camera.

"Hopefully those involved will heed the warnings – but if not, I am confident once we start issuing fines like confetti, those involved will think twice.

“When theft from motor vehicles was raised as a priority for Hucknall, we deployed the capture car and had a hit with Justin Lamb convicted of this.

"We obtained a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) banning him from Hucknall.

"On April 24, we located Lamb back at an address in Hucknall and he was arrested for breach of his CBO and charged and remanded to court.

"Theft from motor vehicles are still an area of concern so we will continue to mix our tactics up.

“But should any local residents have evidence to offer please make sure you let us know.”

“With the additional bank holiday and some warm weather forecast, there is potential for ASB to rise as we get in to May and the teams will continue with the Operation Springboard patrols.”