ASB and other things

So, with the Annual Meeting behind us what have I done? Caught up on some case work for the ward and read lots of comments from frustrated residents on the one hand and frustrated planning officers on the other about applications in the ward. Some things never change. The Mayor now has her blog working, with photos of events she's attended. Because it's part of the local authority website it has to be done according to policies and codes of practice, but it's still a real innovation.
Tonight's ward surgery brought some unwelcome news. It all started well enough with a representative of the church in whose premises we meet coming to do a risk assessment and discuss the petition they're organising for a pedestrian refuge in the road outside. That's something we can very happily support. But then came a visit from our neighbourhood police officer to talk about the anti-social behaviour problems in the ward. It seems that we now feature as the second worst ward in the South and West area. Gangs of young people are gathering, drinking alcohol and causing noise and damage as they disperse. If the police disperse them from one area they move on to another. In the end we decided to try to arrange a round table discussion with the young people, the police, the youth service, the parish council, ASB team and other interested parties to look for a way out.
Watch this space - miracles are notoriously difficult so I hope we aren't raising false expectations.