Concern and anger about drug use and related crime in Ludlow has been growing in recent weeks. Drug use and abuse has led to an increase in shoplifting and burglaries by addicts and dealers desperate to grab items they can sell to buy more drugs or pay their drug debts. Shoplifting has taken in place in broad daylight. Sometimes under the noses of security. Shopwindows have been smashed overnight and goods stolen. These goods are usually of no use to the thieves. They are to be exchanged for drugs or money for drugs. Those drugs quite often include cocaine supplied from cities such as Birmingham. West Mercia Police have told the Shropshire Star that there is no significant problem with drug use in Ludlow.
Tag: police
Covid Watch 35: New advice to police will allow us to use socially distanced space and exercise more effectively
The primary message is to stay at home. But we can exercise and engage in essential activities outside the home. There has been confusion about what we can do and what is forbidden. In the first ten days of the lockdown many people didn’t know what was being asked of them or just decided to ignore advice and party on. A minority of police actions, including flying drones to film walkers and threatening to check shopping baskets for non-essential goods, threatened to undermine the long established principle of policing by consent. Now there is greater clarity from police. This will benefit people who live in the Ludlow area who often drive short distances to walk in Mortimer Forest or on the Clee. There has been clarity from Shropshire Council too that farmers are not allowed to block footpaths during the Covid-19 emergency.
Criminals are exploiting children and vulnerable adults in Shropshire and Ludlow – we have ten county lines
County lines extend drug dealing from the cities into smaller towns, including to Shropshire. Ludlow is one of the seven towns police identify as vulnerable to county line activity. Two people have recently been jailed for taking over a Ludlow house for drug dealing – cuckooing. County lines controlled from Merseyside, Manchester and the Midlands are only part of the issue. Every year in Shropshire, police, medical practitioners and councils monitor around 150 young people vulnerable to child sexual exploitation – CSE. This part of a nationwide problem of exploitation of children and vulnerable adults by criminals. Shropshire and Ludlow are low crime areas but we have many vulnerable people who are being exploited by criminals. There is good work underway to tackle the problem but it remains one of the most complex challenges for the public sector. If you have concerns about anyone, ring 101 or talk anonymously to […]
Here we go again – another fire was lit on Gallows Bank tonight
It is only eight days since the last fire but once again vandals have built a bonfire on Gallows Bank. We had a sense of déjà vue this evening as Mel the Collie and myself strolled onto the bank from Dark Lane. That was at 18.45 and the fire was well ablaze. Two men in beanie hats were feeding it with branches. As we approached, they ran off.
Police will once again be based at Ludlow police station from January – good news indeed
Yesterday afternoon the West Mercia police commissioner announced the very welcome news that Ludlow will once again operate as a police patrol base. The announcement came just hours before deputy commissioner Barrie Sheldon was to appear at a public meeting of the Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee dedicated to community safety and crime. It comes against a backdrop of increased crime in Ludlow and the surrounding area – burglaries have doubled in the last year. Our community has also been increasingly concerned with the lack of a regular police presence in the town and slow response times.