APPENDIX 4
Memorandum from the Civic Trust, and the
Pickering and District Civic Societies
In response to the request from the Civic Trust,
the Pickering and District Civic Society's replies to the 6 questions
are as follows—
The scale and impact of local environmental
crime is considerable, especially in a rural tourist area.
Fly tipping is seen in country lanes and although
the R D C collects from roadsides they have no power over private
land. The same applies to abandoned cars. Fly posting advertising
events etc is common in the town and is often an eyesore. Litter
from late night take-aways is a daily problem despite the provision
of litterbins and a daily collect and clean up by the RDC. Chewing
gum defaces the York stone pavements. Noise of late night drinkers
and Boy racers disturb residents. Illegal parking on pavements,
double yellow lines, verges etc cause danger and inconvenience
to pedestrians, wheelchair users and pram pushers.
2. There is a change of attitude to these
sorts of crimes in that those who commit them do not seem to see
them as a problem! Authorities seem to be taking them a little
more seriously with a more "joined up" attitude eg environmental
health and police co-operation.
3. They do not have enough powers and resources
and they do not always use to the full the powers that they have—for
what reason is not clear—lack of manpower, perhaps fear
of retaliation or the feeling that other issues are more pressing?
4. There does not seem to be sufficient
dialogue and co-operation between government and various bodies
responsible for dealing with the problem at local level. For example
I believe we are still waiting for details of the new licensing
laws to be finalised. There is also not enough link up of similar
problems and ways of dealing with them over the country as a whole.
Local issues are in fact National problems but the impact is not
always appreciated as such.
5. There should be more education from school
through to old age dealing with personal responsibility for the
environment—Not just wild life environment but townscape,
local streets etc. The general public must make clear what standards
are expected in their own area and not expect other people to
do it for them, eg people who are disturbed by any of these crimes
must make representations themselves to authorities concerned
and those authorities must not treat these complaints with indifference
or contempt. Only so will a true picture of the local situation
emerge. The new emphasis on disorder and anti social Behaviour
should provide alternatives to the criminal justice bill in that
nuisances that are not exactly crimes can be dealt with provided
that the authorities are determined to do so.
6. It is often a downward spiral into apathy.
In areas where there is less advantage it could be easier to be
preoccupied with just surviving! In our area it is in the town
centre and on some currently undeveloped land that most of these
problems are most evident. but we have no really large areas of
deprivation so we do not feel qualified to answer in general.
We should like to point out that we have had
a very short notice of this Enquiry and therefore our response
is from two of the officers of the society and not all its members.
February 2004
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