Telford estate’s ‘grey guard’ is beating the vandals
Wednesday 6th October 2010, 7:00PM BST.
A 24-hour “grey guard” set up on a Telford estate by residents who claimed they were being terrorised by yobs has wiped out vandalism.
Residents of Snedshill Way, St Georges, said they had been living in fear and waking up in the morning to find fresh vandal attacks on their homes and property.
The last incident saw the air let out of 14 car tyres on the street.
Householders said they had also had yoghurt pots and eggs thrown at their front doors and some pensioners discovered flowers ripped up and strewn across gardens.
In a bid to stop the attacks, residents, including many pensioners, started a 24-hour watch over their estate in July and vowed to stay awake throughout the night – ready to call police if there are any problems.
Stephen Cook, 46, said he would stay up during the night time to keep watch while pensioner Norman Lloyd said he would keep guard and watch out during the day.
Four months on, Mr Cook said incidents of vandalism had disappeared since it was reported in the Shropshire Star that residents would be overlooking the estate.
“There has been no more vandalism, we’re very happy,” said Mr Cook.
“There is still a problem with youths coming up and down the road in their cars but there has been no trouble. We decided to sort it out ourselves and it has worked.
Chris Ammonds, spokesman for Telford police, confirmed officers had had no reports of any incidents on the estate since July.
Mr Cook said they were not keeping a constant watch any more but if there were any disturbances neighbours would act.
By Jason Lavan
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What a great community story and I’m delighted that there has been no trouble for these good people since they decided to take matters into their own hands.
What a shame, however, that they were forced to incur initial distress and subsequent inconvenience to lead their lives in peace.
I do hope that West Mercia police will now take up the baton and run regular and hard-hitting patrols in this and every area to stamp out mindless vandals and anti-social behaviour.
My area next please; comforting promises from our MP before the election have come to nought now that he’s been re-elected. We need grey guards down here as well.
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I hope they are going to get a rebate of their council tax for doing the job the police should be doing
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I think this is great. Whilst we’d all like the police to be omnipresent, they can’t. It’s good to see residents taking some personal responsibility too and those involved are a credit to their community
(Not sure you should have put that last line in the report though)
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sorry davey its not about the police being omnipresent its about there being a beat copper, not a 6 hourly fly past by a patrol car.
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An all too familiar story in the Britain of today. Well done to the residents in standing up to these vermin. What a pity that the official forces of law and order are unable or unwilling to do the job they are paid to do. Some sections of the youth of today seem to be effectively out of control, and with tacit approval of a state which fails to educate, challenge, inspire or discipline them.
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is this really what we want? Gangs of vigilanties scouring the streets dishing out their own brand of justice to who ever they deem guilty.
who are they accountable too?
i know my command of writen english is quite poor but even i can see the headline should read ‘are’ beating the vandals and not ‘is’ beating the vandals. This also sounds a bit extreme i suppose that a few naughty scallywags kicking bins over can be tiresome but does this merit a beating?
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You want to check your English factbook, sunshine. I think you’ll find ‘is’ to be quite correct in this case.
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Yes, Rik, I think that it is what we want.
And yes, I think that it does merit a beating.
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Wow! Rodney, we’re in agreement.
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I would hardley call them “gangs of vigilanties”. It’s good to see people taking a proactive approach to sorting out their neighbourhood, instead of just moaning about it.
Good on them!
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