North East Lincolnshire Council and a Community Payback team from HLNY CRC were out on a Grimsby street, focusing on cleaning up an area to the rear of Halfords that has been plagued by anti-social behaviour and widespread flytipping.

The teams were initially out to try and clear up a lot of the fly tipped rubbish and litter in Pasture Street the area, but during their work they also found that the street has become a hotspot for local drug users.

The grass verge leading up to the barrier of Peaks Parkway was covered in drug paraphernalia, with used syringes and other items scattered all around. And a huge was quantity uncovered behind a concrete pillar beside the brick barrier that supports road signs.

Directly behind Halfords, where the store keeps its large metal containers, there was also evidence of frequent drug use. It’s something that store staff say is a constant problem, with them even having to remove some containers due to them constantly being broken into and used to take drugs.

Assistant Manager Ben Jones said: “Drug use and anti-social behaviour is something that we constantly have to deal with at the rear of the store.
“We are constantly finding used syringes everywhere, and we even had to get rid of one of our large containers because people kept breaking into it, doing drugs and leaving needles all over the place.

“It is good to see that the council are coming down and making an effort to clean the place up, because things had got better when they cut back a lot of the hedges. When it is more exposed less people come and cause trouble.”

The community protection and compliance team from the council were down checking how the clean-up operation was going, and were keen to stress that making the borough a clean and safe place for everyone is there number one priority.

“We hope that this will be able to demonstrate what can be done in a little area, and we hope that it will encourage the local community to take recapture a little more pride and keep it clean and tidy in the future”

Neil Clark, North East Lincolnshire Council Community Protection and Compliance Manager said: “We have been tackling an anti-social behaviour hotspot today along with the help of the Community Payback teams.

“We hope that this will be able to demonstrate what can be done in a little area, and we hope that it will encourage the local community to take recapture a little more pride and keep it clean and tidy in the future.

“We are working for one day here, but that does not mean that we only focus on one area per day, our whole team is always focused on ensuring that the whole borough is a clean and safe place for us all to live.”

Councillors Matthew Patrick and David Bolton also attended the clean-up today and wanted to reassure residents that the council will be cracking down on anti-social behaviour hotspots for the good of all in the community.

Councillor Patrick said: “We are down here today to help clean-up the borough and reassure residents that we are tackling local anti-social behaviour hotspots.

“As a councillor for the Heneage Ward I am well aware of the problems that occur down here, as I like many others walk down here almost every day. We are focusing on tidying this place up and so far we have had a lot of success, already uncovering a large quantity of used needles and drug paraphernalia.

“I am thankful for the help of the Community Payback teams in the work that we are doing today, and hopefully we will be able to turn this place around.”

The Heneage Ward councillor also highlighted two upcoming community litter picks on Sunday, March 25 at Weelsby Woods from 10am to 12pm and another on April 8, at 10am on Clee Fields.