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Glasgow Times
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Glasgow Times
Hundreds of town centres to see more police patrols in crime ‘blitz'
More than 500 towns across England and Wales have signed up to the Home Office's safer streets summer initiative, which will run to September 30, with more visible policing and stronger enforcement to 'restore confidence in policing'. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said residents and businesses have a 'right to feel safe in their towns' but the last government left a 'surge' in crime. In a statement, she said: 'It's time to turn this round, that's why I have called on police forces and councils alike to work together to deliver a summer blitz on town centre crime to send a clear message to those people who bring misery to our towns that their crimes will no longer go unpunished.' She said part of the neighbourhood policing guarantee includes investment of £200 million this year to begin the recruitment of thousands of new neighbourhood policing officers. Speaking to members of policing and business sectors at Derby County Football Club's Pride Park Stadium on Thursday, Ms Cooper said every area will have 'named contactable officers for residents and businesses to be able to turn to'. Ms Cooper said: 'It's one of the most important things to restore confidence in policing is to have those neighbourhood police back on the beat dealing with those very crimes that cause so much problem. 'And if we don't see the police on the streets, then confidence is lost. And I think that is what's happened for far too long. 'If shoppers don't feel safe, they will stay home. People will just stay out of our town centres, and that heart of community will be lost. 'I think these kinds of crimes have been dismissed for too long because crime erodes the social fabric that binds us together and keeps communities strong. 'We've made town centres the very heart of the safer streets mission for this summer, taking back town centres from thugs and thieves – at the heart of that is rebuilding neighbourhood policing.' Home Secretary Yvette Cooper visits Derby County FC's Pride Park stadium to launch the safer streets summer initiative (Phil Barnett/PA) Half a million shoplifting offences in England and Wales were recorded by police last year, up 20% from 2023. In a statement, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: 'We are on the side of local businesses, and our plan for change is helping create the right conditions for our great British high streets to thrive. 'The safer streets summer initiative will play a vital role in achieving this by keeping footfall high, communities and those that work in them safe, and the economy growing.' Anthony Hemmerdinger, managing director of Boots, said: 'Retail theft alongside intimidation and abuse of our team members is unacceptable, so we welcome this additional support from Government and the police to strengthen shop worker protection.' Police and crime commissioners across England and Wales have developed local action plans with police, including in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Humberside, Devon and Cornwall.
Western Telegraph
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Western Telegraph
Hundreds of town centres to see more police patrols in crime ‘blitz'
More than 500 towns across England and Wales have signed up to the Home Office's safer streets summer initiative, which will run to September 30, with more visible policing and stronger enforcement to 'restore confidence in policing'. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said residents and businesses have a 'right to feel safe in their towns' but the last government left a 'surge' in crime. In a statement, she said: 'It's time to turn this round, that's why I have called on police forces and councils alike to work together to deliver a summer blitz on town centre crime to send a clear message to those people who bring misery to our towns that their crimes will no longer go unpunished.' She said part of the neighbourhood policing guarantee includes investment of £200 million this year to begin the recruitment of thousands of new neighbourhood policing officers. If shoppers don't feel safe, they will stay home. People will just stay out of our town centres, and that heart of community will be lost Yvette Cooper Speaking to members of policing and business sectors at Derby County Football Club's Pride Park Stadium on Thursday, Ms Cooper said every area will have 'named contactable officers for residents and businesses to be able to turn to'. Ms Cooper said: 'It's one of the most important things to restore confidence in policing is to have those neighbourhood police back on the beat dealing with those very crimes that cause so much problem. 'And if we don't see the police on the streets, then confidence is lost. And I think that is what's happened for far too long. 'If shoppers don't feel safe, they will stay home. People will just stay out of our town centres, and that heart of community will be lost. 'I think these kinds of crimes have been dismissed for too long because crime erodes the social fabric that binds us together and keeps communities strong. 'We've made town centres the very heart of the safer streets mission for this summer, taking back town centres from thugs and thieves – at the heart of that is rebuilding neighbourhood policing.' Home Secretary Yvette Cooper visits Derby County FC's Pride Park stadium to launch the safer streets summer initiative (Phil Barnett/PA) Half a million shoplifting offences in England and Wales were recorded by police last year, up 20% from 2023. In a statement, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: 'We are on the side of local businesses, and our plan for change is helping create the right conditions for our great British high streets to thrive. 'The safer streets summer initiative will play a vital role in achieving this by keeping footfall high, communities and those that work in them safe, and the economy growing.' Anthony Hemmerdinger, managing director of Boots, said: 'Retail theft alongside intimidation and abuse of our team members is unacceptable, so we welcome this additional support from Government and the police to strengthen shop worker protection.' Police and crime commissioners across England and Wales have developed local action plans with police, including in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Humberside, Devon and Cornwall.
BBC News
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Lemmy was a personal hero to me, says Stoke-on-Trent sculptor
"Motorhead are the hardest, loudest band in the world – why wouldn't you make those your heroes? We're from Stoke-on-Trent and Lemmy's one of us."Those are the words of sculptor Andy Edwards who has created a statue of the band's frontman, which will be unveiled in the town of his birth on 8 May. Lemmy was born Ian Kilmister in Burslem, in 1945 and his family later moved to Newcastle-under-Lyme. He died in 2015, aged 70. The rocker's connection to north Staffordshire has endured among locals. And some of Lemmy's ashes will be interred within the statue's plinth by guitarist Phil Campbell. "Lemmy was a personal hero to me," Mr Edwards first saw the band play live at Hanley's Victoria Hall in 1979, shortly after a school friend had told him to listen to their album is a photo of Lemmy on the album's back cover on which the new statue has been Edwards – who is perhaps best known for his statues of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor at Derby County FC and The Beatles on Liverpool's Pier Head – said the idea for the Lemmy statue began about three years added Motorhead's management had subsequently been in touch and said it would cover the cost. Mr Edwards also saw the band at Vale Park in 1981, and described this era as their peak."The reason for making this statue is to give other people that pleasure that I've had in thinking back, those memories at Victoria Hall, Bingley Hall and Vale Park," he Edwards explained he had contemplated every intricate detail possible whilst creating the statue. This included recreating, as accurately as possible, Lemmy's Rickenbacker 4001 guitar which he was playing at Vale Park."I put those details in because if you don't, people sense there's something not quite right and they don't hang around as long," he said."You want people to hang about because you want people to go back in time and get their imaginations going." The sculptor added he had even debated with himself whether to put the star in Wrangler or Levi's said he had combined details with his own memories of Lemmy's swagger, to help get the pose right."You've got to care about it, it's got to come from the heart," he said. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
