12 November 2022
Hard-working Green Councillors for Winton East, Simon Bull and Chris Rigby, have been seeing, hearing and taking action on more anti-social behaviour concerns in Winton.
Simon Bull acted to get obscene graffiti removed from Leslie Road [pictured before and after]. Simon says: "I've been on to Enforcement at the Council, who have got the leaseholder to take action to remove that graffiti. And I am now in conversation with Boots to see if there is a longer term solution to stop the repeating of that."
![Before Simon Bull acted: Obscene graffiti on Leslie Road [profane words redacted]](assets/images/local_parties/southeastdorset/news-graphics/Leslie%20Road%20obscene%20graffiti%20redacted.jpg)
Simon also acted to get successful enforcement action on a Cardigan Road front yard [pictured before and after]. Simon says: "I was able to get the Enforcement team to visit, to give them some education about how to use the bins, and to tidy up the front of the property, which now looks a lot nicer and is a more pleasant thing to walk past."
On the wider picture across Winton, Councillor Bull says: "There are incidents of antisocial behaviour across the area, and Councillor Rigby and I do our best to tackle them when they arise.
"Some of them of course, are related to the student population. But of course that is only a part of the story. I am working with the universities. I regularly meet with Bournemouth University, the police, the Enforcement team, the student wardens team, to see what we can do to improve the relations between residents and students, and how we can help them to understand how things work - such as the bins, such as parking, encouraging them to be more mindful of the longer-term residents - and to help longer term residents to understand the students and where they're coming from. The University have recently sent ‘good neighbour’ leaflets to student houses.”
"Not all anti-social behaviour is down to students, not all students commit anti-social behaviour. So it's very important that we accept that and understand that - there's a few bad apples in every community.
"We are aware that there have been incidences of street drinking, and we are monitoring those to see what we can do and how we can help with that.
"I have heard people suggesting we remove the benches in Winton. But I've also seen the benches used regularly by elderly people or people with heavy shopping, or people just wanting to sit down for a minute and have a break. So it's something I don't want to lose. I think it's very important we keep resources and facilities for the residents, and don't just get rid of them because there've been some incidences of anti-social behaviour around them."
Councillor Chris Rigby is now on the Dorset Police & Crime Panel, and is in contact with Bournemouth North Pubwatch. He says: "BCP's Anti-Social Behaviour Team can be contacted on 01202 128883 or asbteam@bcpcouncil.gov.uk, or you can find more information online on the types of report they accept.
"If you do need to get in touch with the police: obviously, if it's an emergency, always dial 999. If it's a non-emergency, you can contact them on 101 or by email to 101@dorset.pnn.police.uk. If you want to report anything anonymously, you can contact Crimestoppers as well, and report it in that way - 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers-uk.org/."
"We’re monitoring how satisfactory residents find official responses, to pass on - so do let us know.”
