Please help us fight the council

welchdragon

Please could you take 5 mins from your busy shedule to read this email and advise me as to how I can get my message accross to our local council and if necessary the newspapers.
Can you possibley help me with wording a letter to the council, and newspapers. I do not really know how to word them and due to many thefts at our local leisure / swimming centre and also trouble with vandalism outside lately. we need to raise the councils awareness and get them to put CCTV up in the reception area and outside at the enterence. Any advice would be more that welcome and gratefully received.


This is our story so far:
In the last few years there has many thefts at our local leisure / swimming centre and also trouble with vandalism outside, windows smashed and cans and bottles thrown round and drunks/alcoholics sitting round in groups day and night in corners some hurling abuse as people pass by and drug users buying and using. Just a few months ago there was a big clean up around the front of the swimming / leisure centre grounds on the underage drinkers and alcoholics leaving bags and boxes of empty cans and bottles and the local community police (specials i think they call them) came past for a few weeks to make sure they moved away but it is slowly getting back to the same state.The manager at the swimmin centre says they have asked in the past but the council do nothing - but if we can get letters going and send them to the council, and local newspapers then they have to sort it out.
last month a lady had her glasses taken and before that another lady had her purse taken both these ladies were over 55 and it causes great distress, only two weeks ago today I myself had my coat with my mobile phone in it pinched out of my locker whilst I was only no more than 2 feet away from it in the cubical which has only a nylon curtain accross it I had only been in the cubical for a few mins getting dressed after swimming. Plus the same day another younger lady had her towel taken, it is horrid and you feel violated, The managerl at the centre was very helpful and got the girls to check the area but nothing ever turned up. All this could have been prevented if there had been CCTV camera's in the reception area and outside - plus the police may have been able to have caught and procecuted whoever did this if they had had a view of who was comming and going at the time.
Also, if there was CCTV camera's outside the building then the vandalism (most windows on both sides of the swimming pool area smashed) of approximatly 10 windows on each side of the pool approx four/six months ago would most probably been prevented. ( It has took the council up until today to replace them after being boarded up for so long).
This swimming/Leisure Centre is run by the Council and since the new rules in April giving pensioners and children free swimming at any time This pool has gained a lot of users especially the elders. It would be a shame if all because of a few security measures that people stopped using it.
The Pool sessions are from 7am until 9pm on most days a week but on thursdays it is from 7am to 10pm, ( the staff are fantastic and even they have asked about the chance of CCTV but have got nowhere.) Although there is only a small number of staff on at different times the reception area is often left unattended with only an audiable alert on the door if someone comes or goes through it, the cashdesk and computor are only about 6 foot away from the doors along with other valuable items like radio walky-talkys and keys phones etc., under a reception desk and there is also a snax machine and a drinks machine in the reception area. All of which would be easy pickings for a criminal to come in whilst the reception is unnattended and I must say that sometimes you can wait 5 or 6 minutes for someone to come to reception after you have come through the door as the door alert buzzer thing can only be heard in the reception area as it is not very loud. Most days the doors are left open so then there is NO alert at all !. In my view it is a crime waiting to happen. CCTV would be not only cost effective to the Council but would in this day and age be beneficial to the safety of not only the customers but also to the staff -especially in the latter months of the year when it gets dark early.

I do hope you can help / advise me.
Thanking you for all your help and advise,

yorksrabbit

You're going the wrong way about it.

1) Ring the Council's main office. Ask the receptionist who your ward Councillor is and provide her with your street address so she can identify her or him.

2) Ask the receptionist for the Councillor's contact number. Or go on the Council website and locate her or him there.

3) The website will tell you when the Councillor has a "surgery", which means, when he's running open house for any of his electors who wish to turn up.

4) The time and place of the 'surgery' will be given. Go to it.

And that's it, really.

Trying to write letters like the one above -- sorry, I couldn't read all the way through it -- is a waste of your time, as is asking for input into it from anyone here.

It is, as you say, a Council matter. So go talk to your Councillor.

If she / he utlimately proves witless, then write a letter to your local newspaper.

welchdragon

Counciler is a miserable person who doesn't like to help -god knows how he was elected? He just comes up with excuses as to they can't afford it or that where we are is not high on the crime rates etc., he doesn't care for the town he only moved to here when he got elected.

We need to get the local newspapers behind us but don't know where to start or what to say, we have started a petition but it has only been a few days we are only a group of mums and this is all new to us.

McKneff

Please dont mess about with the fonts when posting, your post was extremely difficult to read.

hollydays

So if he says the crime rate isn't high enough,how do you know it is? Could you and other mums arrange a meeting with the Police Inspector to highlight your concerns and find out their views?
If there is anti social behaviour outside again,then each incident needs reporting to the local Police .This should primarily be being done by the staff there,who should do a little walk outside every so often.Terrible management..
Some areas can be designated "No alcohol zones",and prosecutions follow.

Cctv may not be the answer, stepping up the Police presence, more pressure on the Police,interest from the local residents plus a receptionist on the desk would seem to be preventative.Just because YOU think cctv is the answer doesn't necessarily make it so.It maybe needs consultation first.
Er,if people can just walk through,how do they know everyone has paid? That's a big issue i would have thought.

Are there not staff somewhere sitting doing paperwork who could be repositioned onto reception,it may be just poor management.This is what your councillor could query.I don't think it seems like you have given this councillor a chance,even though he's not local you need to get him on side.

You might find it more productive to sit in reception for a few hours each first to observe what goes on with the deployment of staff.

downshifter

You could write a letter yourself to the paper, just start with something like, we are a group of concerned mums who...etc etc. Don't go on and on, just make it brief and to the point about the anti-social behaviour and how it puts you off going to the pool with your children or older people. You only need a few lines, if you send a long letter as on here it won't get published. If it's a general concern you will probably find someone else writes in the next week about it and it can then snowball, if the council see there is general concern in the media they will act. If no-one else picks it up then get another of the group to write a letter saying how they've found the same, and a few more facts and how they agree with you. Don't just dwell on cctv, it's been proved pretty ineffective in so many places now. It needs a whole range of measures, from police, management of the baths, council etc.

Please ensure that you get someone else to read through your letter before you send it in though, especially for spelling and good use of English - it always helps when you want to get your point across. My local paper is always looking for local interest stories so they might pick it up as a campaign. Incidentally don't slag off anyone in the letter too much, such as the councillor or the manager of the baths, the papers don't want libel cases!!

It sounds a horrible situation, good luck with it. Probably the best way to deal with it is to vote with your feet and go somewhere else, let the baths management know why though.

DS

MothballsWallet

Or you could meet with your ward councillor, and if he still acts like a waste of space, then tell him he could lose his seat at the next elections. Might make him wake up and smell the coffee.

sagalout1954

Yorksrabbit has given you the best advice and my own would be to take it (I work for a Local Authority). The Councillor for your ward will have a monthly 'surgery' and your best bet is to go along and sit in front of him/her, with a couple of others if you can.

As a matter of course most Local Authority departments give priority to queries/enquiries/complaints from their elected Councillors (over members of the public) and ordinarily have 'deadlines' for responding and 'fixing' problems that they don't necessarily apply to Joe Public.

Whether you think your elected Member is a useless nitwit or not, you simply should take that route first, advise them at the time that you will return for their 'surgery' the following month and see what the council's response has been - prior to writing to the local paper. Then you will be in a position to add that you approached the elected Member for your area who was not helpful.

Colin2511

I had a problem at our newly built leisure centre about 18 months ago, none of the family changing rooms locked (we have a unisex changing room), leaving myself and my kids feeling "Exposed" unless all the bags were pushed against the door.- It was not the leisure centre staffs fault, as they kept reporting it, but kept getting told it was on a snag list :mad:

One call to coucil offices did nothing, until I wrote to the local paper pointing out that as this was a unisex changing area and that someone had been prosecuted for taking pictures in same area why 6 weeks had gone by with no locks...hey presto, local councillor phoned and the following week all fixed (this was close to election time)

mrcol1000

If your local councillor doesn't help you could always try a neighbouring councillor. As people say local authorties suddenly jump to action when a councillor gets involved. You also try the director of the department which your problem comes under. Their PA will get the letter but they will ensure it gets a response.

To be honest though I think this is more of a police matter. Putting up CCTV will just move the problem.