Recently on the 8th August there was quite a dramatic crash on Linthouse Lane. As a car collided with a bus shelter, and a Lamp Post.

I want to inform residents that I continue to raise their concerns, that we all have with regards to the speeding that takes place regularly in Linthouse Lane. I will be raising the issue again with West Midlands Police, who are charged with the role of enforcing speed limits and Anti -Social driving.

Back in the Spring of this year, and in answer to questions I raised around an accident on the Linthouse Lane in March of this year. I received the following response….

“Dear Councillor Bateman, Linthouse Lane was included in our annual road safety analysis in January 2023. It was ranked 84th in the list for Personal Injury Collisions per km of road. As you can imagine, this means we are unable to justify including Linthouse Lane in our programme of interventions in 2023/24 financial year; however we will continue to keep the situation under review in future years. I would remind you that responsibility for enforcement of speed limits and anti-social driving such as that described falls to West Midlands Police who can be contacted on their non-emergency number 101 to discuss appropriate enforcement opportunities such as Community Speed Watch activities”

Councillor Phil Bateman went onto say “My view is that the March response received from the Highway Safety team at the City Council, was very disappointing. I know we have a resource shortage, and that there are 83 other worse performing roads for Personal Injury Collisions but if you had these awful events taking place, and putting your family safety at risk. You would want the Authorities to be doing as much as possible to keep you safe.

So, with no safety plan being introduced from the City Council program on interventions locally, in this year’s budgets. I will be raising the issue of cracking down on speedsters driving in Linthouse Lane, with West Midlands Police As it was pointed out earlier in this correspondence. It is West Midlands Police who. are charged with the role of enforcing speed limits and Anti -Social driving.

I will also raise the matter with the Police at the PACT meeting in Wednesfield on the 5th September. “

What this Conservative Government just does not get, is that Policing is important to our Community.

We all want to see more Police. Over the last twelve months, I have done as much as I can to try and raise the profile of the importance of more Police in the battle against crime.

Here in Wednesfield North one of 20 individual Wards here in the City of Wolverhampton, the crime relating to Anti Social Behaviour has been pretty well catalogued in the Police UK Crime statistics.
From January 2022 through to December 2022 we have had recorded 114 ASB crimes in here in the Ward.
ASB is a crime that really annoy people. Like the photograph taken in Ashmore Park where the featured play equipment for children was vandalised and spoilt by Anti Social Behaviour.

If you look at the same ASB stats for (Wednesfield North) but take them over 3 years. The figure grows to 649 ASB incidents. As we move towards a General Election, I am really hopeful that Wednesfield North will vote Labour, because we cannot afford another 5 years of this Governments lack of investment in the Police. If you feel like I do that “Criminals Get Off -Residents Get Let Down” then please join with me at the local elections, and the next General Election and vote Labour!

Just a short reminder- There is a PACT meeting taking place on this date at the above venue. Please place the date and time in your diary. If you have issues about policing here in Wednesfield.

Then this is the place to come and raise them- The Police will be in attendance, if your matter is an issue you want to speak to the Police privately, they usually do so there and then,or make a date and time with you, if it isnt appropriate at this time.

City of Wolverhampton Officers who have a role in the Safer Wolverhampton Partnership are also likely to be in attendance.

Just looking at the Police UK Statistics which are official Government stats for Wednesfield North & South Wards for the month of September –

I looked at crimes reported at the bottom of the statistics for this month. There is already an article on my sites relating to these September figures.

The numbers here though may surprise you!
Drugs -0
Robbery – 3
Other Crime – 4
Possession of weapons – 4
Cycle Theft – 4
Burglary 5
September was captured as a month when there was fewer crimes reported – 254 Crimes. Against August stats which showed -306 crimes.
My message to everyone in Wednesfield is a message I have consistently given for years.
Please report crime you have, or you see. It is so important that we get accurate statistics.
What is quite sobering, and this is more about the whole Justice system, is the fact though we have 254 crimes reported here in Wednesfield .
Only 1 of these cases is currently awaiting a Court Action.
2 – Cases are with Action by Others.
61 – cases are still under investigation.
87- Have no suspects identified
93- Unable to Prosecute.
Whilst on this subject its also worth stating that these statistics also currently deliver a message that this Wednesfield area, is very much still a low-crime area. There is of course a political message here..It is that this Government needs to pump more resources into policing here in Wednesfield and the West Midlands Force in particular.

Investigation after three Wolverhampton men injured in fight
We’re investigating after three men were seriously injured in Ashmore, Wolverhampton last night (Friday 24 June).

At around 10.55pm we started to receive multiple 999 calls reporting a fight between a group of people with weapons, on Southall Road.

Photo of an ambulance
We immediately sent lots of officers and medics, supported by firearms teams.

Three men, aged 26, 37 and 39, were taken to hospitals across the West Midlands with multiple serious injuries. They continue to be treated for their life-changing injuries, today.

The three injured men, who are all from Wolverhampton, had just left a nearby pub when they were attacked by two men armed with knives. At this time, we believe that all of the men know each other.

We have spoken to people who saw the crime happen, have started downloading CCTV and have looked at footage recorded on mobile phones. We have also had forensic teams in the area searching for evidence.

We are actively searching for two men – dressed in black – who are suspected are being involved. Searches have taken place at multiple addresses in the city.

If you can help our detectives, send them a message via Live Chat on the right of your screen quoting reference number 4513-240622.

Call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if you have information but do not want to give your name. You may be entitled to a reward and the charity will never trace your call.

We have a problem in this City of Wolverhampton and also here in Wednesfield North. There is a bunch of crooks on the rampage, stealing drain and gulley covers. At a cost £63,000 in replacement costs city wide. Rampaging drain robbers are the cause of 260 reported incidents of drain and gulley covers stolen.

These criminal gangs need stopping because they are putting people and property at risk as they raid this safety ironwork for their own greed.

In my mind this is also a Police matter, and I do not agree in a City Council policy that does not report these stolen items as a crime. I have spoken with Wednesfield Neighbourhood Police, and they inform me that they are visiting Scrap Yards and metal reclamation sites. I am pleased about that.

I got interested in this issue when it seemed that residents here in Wednesfield North were reporting these crimes to me with depressing regularity. There have been 21 individual reports of incidents here in Wednesfield North during 2020-2021-2022 , and 27 items of ironwork have been lifted. That is a £6,300 replacement cost to the Counciltax payer in my Ward alone.

Sadly, tonight as I type this information for my blog, a resident reported to me yet another drain stolen in Kitchen Lane! Here in Wednesfield North that means in the last 28 days in my Ward alone- Drain crime that I know of is 6 drains lost in 28 days!

I asked if there is another substance that can be used as a drain that would be less valuable and less costly to be replaced.

City Council informed me “whilst there is a desire to find alternative materials, the market is dominated by cast iron products.”

So the Great Drain Robbery will continue until the Police are able to act and arrest the drain robbers. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

As we approach the very first PACT meeting in person! for a very long time due to Covid-19. I thought that I would set out the latest’s crime figures I have for the Wednesfield North and South neighbourhood district. They are West Midlands Police own statistics,as reported through Police UK.

I have been in contact with the West Midlands Crime and Police Commissioner throughout. I am unhappy about a number of issues. I have made that very plain to him. Crime in Wednesfield whilst no where near the worst in the City by a large margin. Nevertheless is seen by these stats to continue to rise. The trend from April 2021 seems to be continued line upwards. I have also written to City of Wolverhampton Chief Executive and the City Leader Cllr Ian Brookfield, as well as the Police with my concerns. Basically we need more Police in Wednesfield.

Here is the statistics that lead me to make this statement. I hope we get some time at the Wednesfield PACT Meeting on the 17th May 2022 at The Hub at Ashmore Park at 6.30pm, to discuss on the night.

View as a list
Crime levels overview Wednesfield North and South
Apr 2021 219 7.7%
May 2021 254 8.9%
Jun 2021 281 9.9%
Jul 2021 293 10.3%
Aug 2021 240 8.4%
Sep 2021 280 9.9%
Oct 2021 231 8.1%
Nov 2021 255 9%
Dec 2021 238 8.4%
Jan 2022 252 8.9%
Feb 2022 298 10.5%

These are the last full month statistics that are publicly available.

I know local people will have other issues of crime of a personal nature, that they are most likely to want to air on the night, direct with the Local Neighbourhood Police team. In the meantime I continue to keep in touch with the City Safer Wolverhampton Partnership, The Leader of the Council and the WMPCC.

The Wednesfield PACT meeting is to start again- Here is what the secretariat has written to me. “I am writing to let you know about the next Wednesfield community meeting. This will be taking place on Tuesday 17th May 2022 at 6.30pm. The venue will be Ashmore Park Community Hub, 82 Griffiths Dr, Wolverhampton WV11 2LH.

This is a meeting staged between our Community here in Wednesfield, and the Wednesfield Police team.

Please if you have any questions or comments that relate to the way that our Neighbourhood Police team police our community. Then this the place to air your views. Leave a thumbs up if you are going to attend.

Councillor Phil Bateman said ” This is a Message from the Wednesfield Neighbourhood Police Team. If you can help the police please do so.

There has been a Burglary in the location of Gandy Road, Wolverhampton.

The time that this crime happened was on the 1st February at 02.00 hours.

Offenders have tried to gain access to the property via an insecure porch door causing damage but were unable to gain access.

If you have any knowledge of this incident that you think could help with the investigation of this crime please call us on 101 or please call Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111 in confidence.

You can also report crime on line now by following this link www.west-midlands.police.uk/incident-report
Preventing crime, protecting the public and helping those in need.
If it’s not 999, search WMP Online

Please take some time to check out our crime prevention advice to help prevent and deter burglaries
https://west-midlands.police.uk/your-options/residential-burglary/#prevention