Dispersal order put in place at Earlswood Lake

Officers from the Stratford District Safer Neighbourhood Team have put a dispersal order in place under section 34 of the Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 Earlswood Lakes,

Over the past few weeks there have been numerous reports of antisocial behaviour including problems with littering, parking, drug use, noise and groups congregating. There have also been reports fish theft.

The order gives officers the power to disperse anyone for the purpose of or reducing the likelihood of members of the public in the locality being harassed, alarmed, or distressed, or the occurrence of crime and disorder.

If people fail to disperse they can be arrested.

The order lasts until 1pm on Monday (1 June) and officers will be patrolling the area during this time.

Inspector Allison Wiggin from the Stratford District Safer Neighbourhood Team said: “There have been reports of groups of 100 people congregating and this is causing a lot of community tension during the Coronavirus pandemic. We have tried to engage with the groups and encourage them to disperse and not come back; but this has been ignored and we have been left with no option but to take this action.

“My officers ended up cleaning up the awful mess left by people yesterday; these officers should be policing their local community, not picking up litter, but given the mess left behind we were left with no choice. We will not tolerate this.

“While this order is only in place until Monday, people should be under no illusion that this will be the end of our activity. We will continue to police the area and clamp down on people behaving in an antisocial manner.”

 

Posted by SC, Corporate Communications