Another shop closed today……

No more shoe shop

It was sad to see Gerry’s Shoes close down today. Regular readers of the this blog will remember when Gerry Atkinson started it with such optimism back in June.

The story looked a positive one – Richmond, a town without a shoe shop, gets shoe shop thanks to local man with vision. So what’s gone wrong?

Basically not enough people bought shoes.

Its arrival coincided with a debate going on at this site – which has continued to this week – about why Richmond’s shopping options are so poor.

The demise of Gerry’s adds another layer to the debate. It would be interesting to know how many of those people defending local shopping and talking it up on public platforms actually use the facilities.

Did you buy a pair of winter shoes this year? If so, where did they come from?

With online purchases now offering unbeatable levels of choice, our changed shopping habits could well lead to more local shops closing. Is that something to worry about? If so, what should the response be in the town?

 

Police webchat fails to engage with residents’ issues

The Richmond Police webchat held this lunchtime attracted just nine questions – along with frustratingly vague answers.

As well as our own specific questions about patrols on Castle Walk, a further two people asked for more information on beat patrols.

All three questions received vague answers without proper information.

To ours, Richmond SNT: replied:

Castle Walk continues to form part of our regular foot patrol route.

It is a beautiful area enjoyed by many and we will do everything we can to keep it that way.

Incidents reported to us are extremely low and we have only had one reported incident of ASB reported to us on Castle Walk in the past 12 months. On this occasion an adult male was arrested.

Pressed by a user called Sue to provide more accurate details about how often it is walked the reply was – “regularly”.

In light of this evasiveness about the issue, we will now put our questions to the Force under FoI. In the meantime please do let us know if you ever see an officer on Castle Walk. You can use the hashtag #pcsowatch which has remain unused since we launched it back in February.

You can recap on the full hour long webchat here. Questions also included an equally vague response about the use of Anti-social Behaviour kits and an unanswered question about printed leaflets left on peoples’ cars.

Today’s lunchtime webchat was apparently an experiment to see if running it during the lunchtime produced more interest. Sadly the lack of real engagement people get if they make the effort to join in (and the aching slowness which we’ve raised before) is making this a pointless exercise.

It’s an hour that would probably be better served with those two officers leaving their computers and getting out on the beat.

Tackling the police about Castle Walk. Again

The Richmond police team is holding a webchat tomorrow lunchtime and inviting local residents to get online and discuss local issues.

They have also offered to take questions in advance so we have taken up that opportunity and posted the following questions on the police Facebook page as they requested for advance questions.

Picking up on our previous webchat inquiries about the policing of Castle Walk – a known place for litter, dog fouling and anti-social behaviour despite being one of the town’s tourist assets – we’d like to ask these few direct questions and receive straightforward answers.

Could you tell us:
– how many times this year have the PCSOs included Castle Walk in any patrols?
– how many times this year have police officers included Castle Walk in any patrols?
– how many of both police and PCSO patrols are scheduled for the remainder of this year?
– how many arrests, cautions, advice or other actions have there been?

The last webchat with the force sadly resulted in contradictory information being given about the vandalised lighting for the Walk so we hope these very simple questions will prove to be illuminating and look forward to full responses – with actual numbers!

Click here to join the webchat at 12pm on Wednesday.

Have you ever seen a PCSO on Castle Walk?

Despite the assurance of Chief Constable David Jones in his recent webchat, we have now learned that there will be no new action to address the problems at Castle Walk.

As we reported before Christmas, the lighting along the walk has now been turned off due to vandalism, a move which has also seen an increase in littering and has made one of the town’s attractions a no-go area for many after dark.

We were told during the webchat that the Richmond Safer Neighbourhood Team would be discussing the issue with Richmondshire Council.

But this week we have now been told this will not happen as the current strategy already includes patrols in the area.

Have you ever seen a PCSO on patrol there? Feel free to tweet us when you do @RichmondNYorks.Hashtag #pcsowatch

In an email (which we did query when it was first received, just in case the message from the chief hadn’t been passed on) Sergeant Helen Blockley states:

“[To this end] there is no planned meeting with the Council and (sic) this time, and our Patrol strategy already covers Castle Walk regardless of lighting being present or not, as this isolated location lends itself to a youth congreagating (sic) area for the purposes of anti social behaviour, and is already high on our list as a periodic hot spot area.”

We can only assume these patrols were also going on when £25,000 of damage was caused to the lights, offences for which there appear to have been no prosecutions brought.

Srg Blockley’s email also explains the background to the failure to keep the lights on and says they will eventually be completely removed leaving the town without one its best tourist assets properly lit.

“In short the Castle Walk is a Highway and as such comes under NYCC. The lights were originally placed by a now disbanded group called the RSVCI created by Colin Grant who was a one time town centre manager for Richmond. By default on their demise the lights then came under District Council.

“There is no plan to replace these light as they were never fit for purpose in design and there is no money for alternative lighting, and in fact NYCC are eventually planning to plate them off so aesthetically it looks pleasing.”

Castle Walk lighting to be discussed by police and council

The issue of the lighting at Castle Walk – as well as general street lighting – was raised at last night’s webchat with North Yorkshire Chief Constable David Jones.

We raised a question about the future for the lighting at Richmond Castle, which we’ve reported on here before, and asked if PCSO patrols could be carried out.

Here’s the answer we received

North Yorkshire Police: 
Thank you very much for raising this issue. The Richmond Safer Neighbourhood Team will be liaising with Richmondshire District Council to seek to address the issue.

That’s quite a (welcome) surprise given the lack of action before Christmas. We’ve today written to the Richmond Safer Neighbourhood Sergeant to find out when that meeting is going to take place and what plans are being discussed there.

We’ll report back here when there’s a reply.

On the separate current consultation about keeping the general street lights on at night that we reported here yesterday, an anonymous visitor at the webchat asked how the street lights switched off in other places had affected crime rates/ public safety, if at all?

North Yorkshire Police: 
Thank you. We are not in a position to evidence an increase in crime directly relating to the switching off of street lamps (although this is being monitored). A concern we do have is how this has an impact on peoples general sense of well being.

You can replay the full webchat here.