Hull the City of Culture 2017 has spent so much money promoting itself as the City of Culture that it has simply overlooked it’s main priority: keeping it’s citizens safe and providing a safe place for them to live and work. Surely this should have priority over presenting the City as something that it is definitely not. I live and work in Hull and I travel extensively in the City and I have to say that Hull has some of the worst and most dangerous areas that I have ever encountered in a small city.
Quite simply the problem is arising through a lack of community policing which has been brought about by the Police and the Council closing the majority of police stations in the localities, satellite areas and concentrating their resources in the Clough Rd area where they are simply not needed. After all what is the point in putting the main policing resource so far out of the city on a limb in an area where there is only a small population. To pay for this swanky state of the art building in Clough Rd the local areas have seen the police stations closing or being sold off to developers. To name just a few that have closed Bransholme Centre as a police station although it has some police staff working from there it is no longer a police station. Holderness Rd Tower Police Station now sold off to developers and where is any police presence on Orchard Park or Preston Rd. These are also (probably not coincidentally) the 3 areas of the city that are the worst for crime particularly from youth vandals & drug dealers.
The Deception of Hull City Council providing visitors with a false impression of the City
Delinquent Youths riding un-licensed and un-roadworthy motorcycles without lights in parks and on pavements further endangering lives: this is the reality of Hull, the City of Culture 2017, this is the reality behind the facade, behind the fiasco or spectacle that the Hull City Council are providing as a false impression to deceive the visitors to this City. I am a taxi driver and these areas are becoming no go areas to work in because of the high risk that you stand of getting missiles thrown at your car as you travel through these areas. These areas have simply been abandoned by both the Hull City Council and the Police, abandoned to youth crime and arsonists. Holwell Rd, Preston Rd/ Annandale Rd and Hall Rd all need a large contingent of Street Cameras to prevent the mindless thugs from throwing missiles at vehicles and endangering lives added to this the area needs a stronger police presence. It is no good allowing police officers to congregate around an area where they are not needed and a long way away from the areas of crime after all not much goes on around a Bingo Hall. These officers are needed on the streets and parks and wasteland areas of Orchard Park and Bransholme. As I said I am a taxi driver yet I have not seen a police vehicle in those areas for weeks. The police need to provide a daily if not hour to hour service in those areas. Believe me the criminals, thugs and drug dealers are just laughing at the police and I know this firsthand because I have witnessed it. Meanwhile people who live or work in these areas, who are decent and trying to make a living through hard work, find that their lives, their livelihood and wellbeing is being put a risk through a Council that has it’s priorities elsewhere.
It’s all well and good making the streets in the city centre clean and tidy for visitors but the real clean up is needed far and away from these areas in the areas where the majority of people actually live.