Many residents will be aware that Cllr Burbridge and Cllr Bright have secured funding from the Council for a new Drugs Dog Security Team in Lancaster Gate.
Patrols are carried out 24/7 in particular areas of concern. They are run in partnership with the local neighbourhood team which includes members of the police force, inspectors plus your Conservative councillors. In the first few weeks of the scheme, the team have reported the following.
- Officers came across a small group sitting on the stairwell in Pickering House, Hallfield Estate. Officers approached the group and advised that they were not permitted to be congregating on the stairwells and the group left immediately with no issues.
- The team had to deal with a male and female in Inverness Terrace over what was believed to be an argument over the buying of drugs. The male was physically aggressive, both towards the female and officers, and had to be restrained by one of the officers whilst the other called police (unit arrived 3 minutes later). The male was arrested, and the team were able to continue their patrols of Inverness Terrace and Queensway without further incident.
- The team came across a male outside of McDonalds on Queensway in the early hours of the morning who was heavily intoxicated and felt suicidal. The officers called an ambulance which arrived 4-5 minutes later and the team remained on site until the male was in the ambulance.
- The team were stopped by a local female resident who expressed her gratitude for the patrols, saying that it had greatly reduced (in fact stopped) the amount of drug dealing within the estate.
