DUNMOW High Street anti-social behaviour – where are the local police when you need them? About 15 years ago my family decided to move to the Dunmow area (Lindsell) to get away from the evils of big town life. Then, it was a refreshing change to see peop

DUNMOW High Street anti-social behaviour - where are the local police when you need them?

About 15 years ago my family decided to move to the Dunmow area (Lindsell) to get away from the evils of big town life.

Then, it was a refreshing change to see people being polite and courteous to each other and showing a, now old fashioned kind of respect. What went wrong?

It has recently become more and more noticeable that an 'ASBO' type culture now exists in the main high street during most evenings.

Over the past year or so, there have been many incidents in the town centre including large gangs of yobs behaving abusively (mainly to each other admittedly) with very loud foul language, glue sniffing, spitting, threatening behaviour, dangerous driving and vandalism.

Note that the HSBC bank has had to close its lobby service in Dunmow due to abuse by local yobs.

The local takeaway businesses also seem to have a problem with bored teenagers who 'move in' to their premises, often without buying anything and then stay the night.

It appears that local businesses are too scared to do anything about this behaviour for fear of reprisal....effectively they are being bullied into accepting this awful behaviour and appear to have no support whatsoever from the authorities.

It's a bit like one of those old Clint Eastwood movies!

What I want to know is, since most of this bad behaviour seems to occur during the evenings, then why Dunmow Police station operates on a 9am to 5pm basis?

Rarely, if at all have I seen anybody policing the area and sorting these problems out.

John Hider

The Brambles

Mole Hill Green

Takeley