Incidents have included fly-tipping and urinating in the street
Jess Phillips (right), safeguarding minister, went on a visit to Nottingham city centre on Thursday, January 29(Image: Rucsandra Moldoveanu/Nottingham Post)
Alleyways across Nottingham city centre could be closed by police to tackle “persistent and incredibly detrimental” antisocial behaviour.
The public pathways causing issues would be gated off permanently to prevent any future incidents.
Norfolk Place, a dark twitchell sandwiched between the city’s empty Debenhams and Five Guys, has been a place where anti-social behaviour takes place regularly for years.
This includes drug dealing and using, drinking, littering, flyposting, fly-tipping and urinating and defecating in the street.
Documents published by the city council this month described the behaviours as “persistent and incredibly detrimental” to nearby businesses and residents, having been ongoing for “several years”.
A total of 151 reports were made in the last two years concerning issues taking place on the alleyway.
The closure could be granted through a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) and anyone accessing the space while the order is in place could be fined up to £1,000.
Jess Phillips, safeguarding minister, commended Nottinghamshire Police’s initiatives to tackle crim during a visit in Nottingham city centre on Thursday (January 29).
She said: “Nottinghamshire Police seem to be really focused on what people are reporting to them.
“No police force is perfect but I’ve been very impressed with Nottinghamshire Police’s focus on the safety of everybody but especially the safety of women and girls.
“It’s important that people feel safe. We’ve seen massive increases in arrests around antisocial behaviour. I feel like the actions we’ve been taking are giving people back that confidence to go out.”
The visit saw Ms Phillips being presented a number of measures to do with tackling and preventing crime in the city centre, including illegal e-bike riding, violence against women and girls, knife crime and safety on nights out.
The event took place on the morning after a teenage boy was injured during a machete confrontation on Glasshouse Street, behind Victoria Centre, as nine people, eight of which are underage, were arrested on suspicion of a number of offences.
Superintendent Chris Pearson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We’re utilising a huge amount of resources from across Nottinghamshire Police to tackle knife crime and serious violence in the city centre.
“Much of that work started before Christmas and since then we’ve made over 200 arrests in the Market Square alone for a range of offences.”
Addressing the preventative measures also being taken, Superintendent Pearson said: “Can we gate off alleyways, improve lighting, install more CCTV? We are doing all of those things and we’re also looking to introduce a new public space protection order jointly with Nottingham City Council.
“Sometimes they will recommend that alleyways get additional lighting or bushes cut back. But on other occasions it might be completely appropriate actually to work with the local authority to permanently close them off.”
Ms Phillips, who is a Birmingham MP, said: “I live in a big, urban city and I’m the mother of young men who go out and participate in life in that city so I can understand people’s concern about this.
“The violence reduction units and the hotspot policing that has been invested in by this government have led to quite a phenomenal reduction of knife crime.
“That is, of course, a continuous work in progress. I would be lying, as a politician, if I said ‘I’ll get rid of crime 100 per cent’.
“But what we’re seeing is that these targeted interventions in town centres and around knife crime are beginning to bear fruit.
“I think the people in this area should definitely feel like there’s a lot of people working to make sure they feel safe on our streets.”
Superintendent Pearson added: “My honest belief is Nottingham is a safe place to live, work and visit. There is a huge amount of police resource operating in Nottingham, both in uniform and in plain clothes.”
