Leith gets some real action!
The first ever ‘Week of Action’ in Leith is being hailed a success with hundreds of residents benefiting from the community safety drive.
Lothian and Borders Police, together with the Leith Neighbourhood Partnership,worked alongside the Council, other agencies and local residents to reduce crime and increase positive feelings about the area.
The key aim of the ‘Week of Action’ (October 13-18) was to listen to the community and address the issues affecting it most.
The area involved was the triangle bounded by Commercial Street, Great Junction/North Junction Street and Constitution Street. Almost all of the households in that area were visited.
Letters were sent to more than 2,400 houses explaining the week of action and giving contact details for the Neighbourhood Partnership, for the Police and Fire Service tobook crime prevention and fire prevention surveys.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, in connection with the Police, stopped 48 vehicles in four hours – one was seized, another clamped and six charges made for a range of motoring offences.
The Council’s team of Community Safety Officers issued three antisocial behaviour warnings. A Residents’ Association is to be established in the Coatfield Lane and Giles Street area after residents canvassed by the team expressed a high level of interest.
Almost 20 bags of rubbish were collected in a street cleaning operation around Leith Links by Leith Academy pupils. Council staff picked up a further 60 bags of litter, as well as filling two flat-bed trucks with larger items of rubbish and weed spraying large areas of the patch. The graffiti removal squad cleaned up graffiti across the whole area on every day of the Action Week.
The Police also seized quantities of cannabis, £3,840 in cash, two stolen pushbikes, one Taser and a CS spray. One person was charged with fire raising, another with 14 counts of vandalism, and information was discovered and passed on about a housebreaking in the area.
The week finished with a community fair, with stallholders pitched at the New Kirkgate Shopping Centre.
The Leith Neighbourhood Action Unit brought along their portable football pitch and, along with the Council, provided free face painting, a magician and a bouncy castle for the children. Local shops provided prizes and treats for children.