By John Baron
A senior police officer will be asked to explain a ‘worrying’ increase in the number of burglaries in the Calverley & Farsley ward to local councillors.
Speaking at the outer west community committee at Farnley Hall today, Cllr Craig Timmins (Lab, Calverley & Farsley) expressed concerns about a 73% increase in crime compared to last year.
Figures debated by councillors said there had been 50 more burglaries between January and August this year in the ward – a total of 111 compared to 61 for the same period last year.
There has also been an increase in shoplifting to 125 incidents, an increase of 66 from the 59 reported incidents last year.
“I am really concerned about the increasing number of burglaries,” Cllr Timmins said. “I see burglary is a force-wide priority and I would like to know what they are doing to tackle this at a local level.
“It would be good to have some information we could share with local residents.”
His calls were backed by Councillor Andrew Carter (Cons, Calverley & Farsley) who expressed concerns over the number of both criminal and anti-social behaviour/nuisance incidents.
It was agreed to ask a senior police officer to attend the next outer west community committee meeting in November to explain the rise and pass on any tips on how to tackle the incidents and highlight any trends.
Councillors also approved a grant for Calverley United Football Club towards replacement machinery to maintain the football pitch in Victoria Park.
They also approved a bid by Swinnow Community Centre for £3,750 towards items like crockery to support the new cafe.
Councillors also agreed to pay £1,500 towards Music Box Youth’s application towards delivering music workshops with young people at Swinnow Community Centre and building on the success of their youth choir at Pudsey House.
A bid for £2,750 by Music Box for music-related activities in Pudsey and Swinnow by Music Box was deferred to await more information.
Pudsey Greenside Greenway’s retrospective application to fund railway information boards at the former Greenside and Lowtown were refused.
A £34,000 application install a lift at Pudsey Community Project’s base in Fartown was deferred until November pending the completion of a legal agreement. The lift would allow the foodbank and Reduce Reuse Kids’ Clothes to move downstairs to create a dedicated clothes area.
The outer west community committee is made up of nine councillors from three wards: Calverley & Farsley, Farnley & Wortley and Pudsey and has five Labour, three Conservative and one independent councillor.
Read more of WLD‘s ongoing coverage of the committee here.
Hopefully the police will be asked how many suspects have been identified for this increase in crime, and how many of them have been charged. It is an eight month period we are talking about here so presumably some action will have been taken?