An Amersham resident has slammed “poor level” policing after fears repeated antisocial behaviour in a car park could leave someone injured.
The resident, who did not want to be named, lives near the Sycamore Road car park, off Rickmansworth Road, and says he and his family have experienced “intermittent” antisocial behaviour during the evening when the car park is generally empty, over the past four years.
He told the BFP: “Groups of young males congregate mainly in the corner of the car park.
“Most times they arrive in cars and use the empty car park as a skid pan performing some dangerous manoeuvres, other times they would play loud music whilst smoking drugs, letting off fireworks at one another and driving around the car park at speed whilst youths are holding on to the bonnet of the car.
“Recently I came to know from neighbours that three youths had attempted to break into the nearby clothing store, Fat Face.
“This, along with previous encounters, were raised with the police and they have failed to attend or take any form of proactive step in addressing the behaviour.
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“I understand such calls to police may be graded as low priority but to ignore the concern of the residents for such a long period of time, merely encourages the behaviour to be repeated.
“This is poor level local policing and, needless to say, hinders the confidence in the police.”
He said he called police again on April 7 when he “became aware of 10 to 12 youths gathered in the car park kicking a ball against a garden fence” which divides the garden from the car park, and was concerned the repeated kicking would damage the fence.
He said: “Whilst on call to the operator the youths continued to kick the ball against the property. I relayed this to the operator only for them to advise if the gate hasn’t been damaged, they would not attend.
“Despite outlining that my call was to prevent any damage, the operator insisted they would only attend after any damage was caused.”
He added: “Due to the inactivity of both the police and council, we are having to live in intimidation and fear whilst our concerns go unheard.”
He told the BFP he has also contacted the former Chiltern District Council’s parking services team about the issue, claiming they said they would be unable to attend “due to the late hours of when the events occur falling outside their office hours”.
The resident added: “I would have thought a simple installation of a single CCTV camera would act as a deterrent as well provide reassurance to genuine users of the car park when leaving their vehicles unattended.
“The likely result of a continued failure to act is that a member of the public will be injured.”
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Thames Valley Police said it “cannot find reports of anti-social behaviour at this location” and is checking with the team in Amersham to find more information.
In the meanwhile, a spokesman said: “We would urge people to report anti-social behaviour to us, either online or by calling 101.
“All reports of incidents help the local teams build up a picture of what is taking place in their area and influence things like where they carry out patrols.”
Buckinghamshire Council also said its environmental health and car parks teams had not received any noise or anti-social behaviour complaints about Sycamore Road car park in the last four years.
The BFP has made the council aware of emails exchanged between the resident and the former Chiltern District Council’s parking services team, with Bucks Council saying it is looking into the matter.
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