Luke Witton and Natasha Babber from Wolverhampton, talk exclusively to the Express & Star about the anti-social behaviour they are suffering from.

Express & Star

Luke Witton and Natasha Babber from Wolverhampton, talk exclusively to the Express & Star about the anti-social behaviour and drug crime they are suffering from at their home.

Transcript

00:00So, Anastasia and Luke, you've been dealing with quite a bit of antisocial behaviour,

00:05you've only been living here since February, so if you just want to talk a little bit about

00:09obviously what you've seen so far just since then.

00:12Well, I mean, it's the constant people coming down and dealing drugs, using drugs in the

00:20local bus stop that's just outside our home. It's having a knock-on effect to all our children

00:26that are living here with us. We just don't think that it's an appropriate thing to be

00:34doing outside a family home. Yes, we have escalated it to, obviously, police and obviously

00:41to the council and things like that. The police have, their presence has got bigger, but there's

00:47not a lot they can do unless they physically see them doing or doing whatever in the act.

00:52So until they've actually got the physical evidence, they can't really do anything. So

00:55all they've done is just more police presence down here, you see them parked up down the road

01:00and things like that ever so occasionally. And that has helped a little bit. It has, because

01:04when the police do come, they scatter. They're literally like rats, they'll scatter as soon as

01:09they see the police, but then as soon as the police have gone up the road, they go back to

01:12where they was and carry on doing whatever they're doing. But it all started really was when we

01:16caught somebody having a wee up the drive. He came up the drive and I didn't realise he'd had a wee

01:21until I'd gone out and actually looked and saw that he took a wee up the side of my van.

01:25So I did confront him and did shake quite a bit. And that's when we first had the police involved.

01:30Yeah, and they attended. Because as I was having the argument, the police actually come around the corner

01:33and they came and spoke to us and they actually took them back up and sorted out things.

01:38And they basically turned around and said they can't do anything until they physically see it happening.

01:43So we sort of like going down every avenue we can to try and get it sorted.

01:47It's raising awareness of it. It's the antisocial behaviour that they're doing. If it's not outside

01:52our home, they're doing it outside other people's homes. It's not just our family that are being

01:56affected. We've spoke to the other neighbours down the road that have had this for years

02:00before we've got here. One of those chaps, I think his name's Brian, lives down the road.

02:04He's had it since he's lived here. And he's lived here, from what I can gather, best part of 30 years.

02:10And he's had it since he's lived here. But he's, because of his age, he doesn't want to confront

02:15them. And I think he has got a son, but I think his son's got learning difficulties.

02:20He's older, but he's not sort of all there, if you know what I mean. It's the only way of putting it.

02:25Not a nice way of putting it. Also, we just feel that the awareness needs to be raised.

02:29It needs to be addressed. These people are all over 18. They're adults. They know exactly what they're doing.

02:35It's not like they use and they need to be guided. They understand the consequences and the

02:40implications of what they're doing and how it's affecting other people. But they just don't seem

02:45to care. And that's what it is more than anything. They just don't care what anybody else thinks.

02:49Yeah. So you said, obviously, you've got small children yourself as well. You've got small children

02:54yourself as well. I mean, like, how do you feel, how do you feel sort of with them, with your small

02:57children in the area? You said you've had some issues with the back garden as well?

03:00We've caught them because the next door's empty at the moment. We've caught them in there

03:05doing whatever in there. I have found human faeces. I've caught them waiting around there.

03:10When they've been in there and our kids have been playing in the back garden, they've seen

03:12them out of the fence. They've been looking out of the fence and the kids have come running in.

03:16I mean, there was a time that the kids wouldn't go out in the garden.

03:19They didn't want it because they were worried.

03:20Yeah, they were worried that someone was going to look out of the fence at them. And because we

03:23couldn't really identify who they were, because by the time we got round there, they'd gone.

03:29And all you could see, you just saw them running up the road.

03:31Yeah. So...

03:32How would you feel about your children sort of playing outside?

03:37Even when we go out on the school run, we say, you don't go down and drive until we follow you.

03:42We come down with them, unless we're both together and I'll go down and you'll lock up.

03:47And I'll lock up whilst Ashley's doing it.

03:48They don't go anywhere past the front of the house unless we're with them.

03:52Because it's just, it's not safe. I mean, nowadays it's a lot different from when

03:56we were kids, but having this extra risk factor.

04:02I mean, your worries are being exacerbated by the other stuff that's going on.

04:06Yeah, of course. Yeah. And we park as close as we can,

04:08so they haven't got to like walk up the road or anything, but it definitely has an effect on them.

04:14It's more so of an evening, it affects them because when they get to bed,

04:16they're worried something's going to happen outside.

04:18And they are noisy when they come past.

04:19They are very noisy.

04:20And they sometimes do it rather deliberately, don't they?

04:22They'll stand outside and they will shout.

04:24And they will shout at each other up and down the road.

04:26We'll bang on the window and they'll be like, no, no, no, no, no, go away.

04:30Yeah.

04:31Go away. And then nine times out of 10, when that happens,

04:33we'll either contact the police through the messaging service or we'll phone them.

04:37If they're really aggressive, we'll phone them straight away.

04:39If they're just going like that, we'll just literally do it on the message service.

04:43And then usually within an hour, a police officer's here.

04:45But by then, they've moved on and done what they've got to do.

04:48But we are on good talk in terms with the manager of where they're residing at the moment.

04:53And they're trying their best.

04:56Yeah, they are.

04:58They're limited to what they can do.

04:59They're doing what they're calling like a neighbourhood thing,

05:01so they can be good neighbours and things like that.

05:03And a couple of them, when they come down here, they go over the other side of the road.

05:09They're clearly still doing what they're doing,

05:11but they're on the other side of the road.

05:12They're going down there or they're going right down by the KFC or they're all the way up there.

05:18What they've been asked, they have done.

05:20Yeah.

05:20But the majority of them are like, no, we're just going to carry on doing what we want to do.

05:25So what do you think has been done?

05:26Because you said that, I remember you saying that they did try to put a camera up.

05:32I'm not sure when it was, because one of the neighbours told me,

05:34it must have been a couple of years ago.

05:36And they put a camera on the lamppost just down the road.

05:41And then somebody from the residence has basically come down

05:44with an angle grinder of some type of cutter, a petrol one.

05:47But the man at the time reckoned he might start it off a builder's yard or something,

05:51because it was one of the big ones they used to cut the concrete and things with.

05:54And he's tried to cut the lamppost down to get rid of the camera.

05:57And the marks are still in the lamppost,

05:59the actual cut marks are still in the lamppost.

06:01He got about halfway through the lamppost and he must have snapped the blade.

06:04Because nowadays, it wasn't designed for doing that.

06:06It must have been for the concrete.

06:08So what do you reckon more can be done then to help you feel safer?

06:10Do you reckon like an increased police presence in the streets?

06:12Definitely.

06:12Cameras?

06:14If we could get another camera up, an actual council camera,

06:16because they're more noticeable.

06:18And we've fitted our own cameras.

06:19Yeah, we've done ours for ourselves.

06:20That's all we can physically do.

06:22And we are gathering evidence to give the police.

06:24And any evidence we do get, we send off to the police straight away.

06:27But if we could get maybe more police presence

06:29and definitely a camera by the council.

06:31I mean, the police did say that we're going to talk to the councillors to see.

06:35They knew that there was one done before.

06:36And the police said, yes, we did have one.

06:38It was on one of the lampposts down there

06:39because of what was happening in the area.

06:42And they said they are trying with the council to try and get it sorted.

06:45But I'm hoping, speaking to you guys now,

06:48maybe that'll push the council to go,

06:49OK, we need to get a camera put up and do something more.

06:52And then obviously the police presence may increase a bit more.

06:54And I think just having that will help.

06:56Yeah.

06:56It really will.

06:57Because when we initially spoke to them, the police presence increased.

07:00And it did.

07:02Yeah.

07:02It did increase massively.

07:03Yeah.

07:04Every two minutes, you'd have a police car coming down the road.

07:06So we hardly saw any of them.

07:07But it has died off.

07:08But it's understandable because time of year and things like that.

07:11All the services are pushed.

07:13They are.

07:13And they've got other things they're having to do.

07:15We've obviously got the Christmas market on in town.

07:17So they're having a lot.

07:17They've got a lot on their plates at the moment.

07:19But even just having a police car drive past every couple of minutes,

07:22one way or the other, makes a massive difference.

07:24And it also makes the kids relax more as well.

07:27When they see a police car coming down the road,

07:29whether it's blue lighting or whether they're just driving past,

07:32the kids know they're there to help.

07:34And they're coming past.

07:35And they know that when the police are coming past,

07:37it's very doubtful that these groups of people are going to be outside.

07:39Yeah.

07:40Where at the moment, obviously, not that many police coming down.

07:44You can't help but to feel a bit insecure with what's going on and what's going on there as well.

07:48And I mean, when we go out anywhere, we double check everything's locked.

07:52Because our next door neighbour, when we first moved in,

07:54she was talking to us and they'd have their house broken into several times.

07:57They'd gone in through the back window.

07:58And I said, look, I said, don't worry, I'll fit my cameras when I can.

08:02I said, so we'll keep an eye on both our properties out front.

08:04I went, I've got to put some out the back.

08:06I went, but where I position my back, we'll keep an eye on our back garden

08:09and yours as best I can.

08:10I went, but it depends how much you'll allow me to do as far as watching your back garden.

08:14She's got children as well.

08:15So they've got to have their own privacy from our cameras.

08:17But I said, if you don't mind me having the camera so we can cover your garden as well,

08:21I don't mind doing it because it keeps their garden safe.

08:23Yeah.

08:24And like, it's, it's, it's trying to work together with everybody

08:27to try and just make something happen.

08:29Yeah.

08:29I was going to say, what's the, what's the community view?

08:30What's the community?

08:32They, to be fair, we've been thanked by quite a few,

08:34especially a couple of the oldies down the road.

08:35They've thanked us because they've had problems for years.

08:38And because of them being old, they don't want to confront them.

08:40And I completely understand.

08:40Well, it's the safety issue, isn't it?

08:42Because if they can square up to us,

08:43they ain't going to think twice about knocking, pushing an old lady or old man.

08:47Yeah, they're not.

08:48So, and they've, they've actually come up and thanked us.

08:50Denny, Sam, Brian, from down the road, they've both come up and said thank you.

08:53Do you know what I mean?

08:53And to be fair, Anne next door have thanked us

08:55because sometimes they're leaning on their Mercedes outside, didn't they?

08:58Yeah.

08:58And they'll just like, quite happily...

09:00They'll just lie across you like it's, like it's nothing.

09:03If that was my car, I'd be outside there telling you to...

09:05But like, they didn't want to confront them,

09:08which is completely understandable.

09:09You know, I'm, I'm not scared to confront anybody,

09:12but it's getting to a point now where I'm like, something more has got to be done.

09:15Yeah.

09:16But ultimately, obviously you shouldn't have to confront them.

09:18You shouldn't have neighbours thanking you for it as well.

09:21They shouldn't need to.

09:21No, but also I don't think the neighbours have contacted the police or anything like that

09:25because they also don't think they wanted the problems.

09:27Because you know what happens, you contact the police, the police confront them.

09:30They know where it's come from.

09:31They're not silly.

09:31They're going to go and cause trouble.

09:33So we, I'm not positive.

09:34I've contacted the police because it needed to be done.

09:37Yeah.

09:37It needed to be.

09:38And like I said, the neighbours have thanked us.

09:40The handful of neighbours that we've spoken to have thanked us and said,

09:43look, you know, it has helped.

09:44We've noticed they're not about as much as there was.

09:47Um, we should have been done sooner sort of thing.

09:51So ultimately you don't really feel, you don't really feel safe.

09:56It's more so for the kids.

09:57It's more so for the kids.

09:58Because obviously we all, as awful as it is,

09:59a stereotypical thing of a drug dealer and people that take drugs, they're unpredictable.

10:04They, they might carry weapons.

10:06And that's exactly what the police have said to me.

10:08You know, we, we don't want them to be under the influence and one of them get hurt

10:15because it's another innocent life being affected by bad decisions that other people make.

10:20Yeah.

10:20And it shouldn't be, no one should have to live in that, in that situation.

10:24It's just wrong.

10:27Yeah.

10:28So hopefully raising the awareness and obviously bringing it

10:32into general public and letting everybody know what's going on.

10:35It might improve it.

10:37We're hoping it will do something well.

10:38Yeah, hoping, hoping.

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