Police have warned people in Ripon to beware of shoddy builders turning up on their doorsteps offering to carry out work.
A Ripon police post on the North Yorkshire Community Messaging website on Saturday said it and trading standards had received a number of reports recently of poor workmanship.
It said:
“Would-be builders have turned up on spec at people’s homes offering to replace guttering, point chimneys, repair roofing etc.
“Work carried out has been found to be sub-standard and shoddy but has been charged at a premium rate.”
Police urged people to be cautious of employing unknown door-to-door tradesmen.
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Long-awaited £1.2m refurbishment of Ripon’s police and fire station confirmed
North Yorkshire Police has confirmed that a refurbishment of Ripon’s shared police and fire station is underway.
The £1.2m project has been in the pipeline for several years after the force sold Ripon’s police station in 2014.
Officers have used facilities at the fire station since 2018 but the site on Stonebridgegate has been deemed not fit-for-purpose by North Yorkshire Police.
In summer 2021, former Conservative Police, Crime and Fire Commissioner Philip Allott unveiled plans for a major refurbishment of the building.
A report was prepared for councillors yesterday that said the works had now been approved and represented “the best value for money” for Ripon residents.
The works will include repurposing the ground floor for the police to interact with the public, changing the first floor to create better meeting spaces for the fire service and improving the windows and lighting of the building.
Additional facilities costing £90,000 will also be created in Ripon’s Town Hall on Market Place to improve the police’s presence in the city centre.
Councillors in Harrogate met last night and heard from North Yorkshire Police Chief Inspector Richard Ogden about the project. Construction work is estimated to take around 15 weeks.
Ch Insp Ogden said:
“It’s something that has been long-overdue. I’m really pleased we have a way forward. We’re not only going to have investment for the fire service but we’re going to have a footprint for our neighbourhood team in the city centre. It’s really exciting for Ripon.”
The police said there will be slight disruption during construction but work will be phased to reduce its impact.
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Zoe Metcalfe
In a press statement released after the meeting, Conservative Police, Crime and Fire Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe said:
“The facilities in Ripon are out of date and not suitable for our modern and inclusive work force.
“This redevelopment is long overdue. As commissioner, I have listened to the community and staff, and want to create a safe environment for the fire and police services to work from and is fit for the future.
“I am also delighted that part of this investment enables us to put our local policing team right into the heart of the city in the Town Hall, being accessible and visible, helping people to be safe and feel safe and contributing towards economic growth.”
Anti-social behaviour in Ripon
Last week, police in Ripon urged residents to report instances of anti-social behaviour following reports in the Aismunderby Road and Ambrose Road areas and the area around the Jack Laugher Leisure Centre and nearby skate park.
Ch Insp Ogden told councillors last night that spikes in anti-social behaviour “comes and goes” in Ripon but that officers have worked to target offenders in the city. He said:
Policing in Ripon comes under a barrage of fire“There was considerable anti-social behaviour problems in Ripon 18 months ago. The neighbourhood team did a lot of proactive work and we dealt with a number of individuals and things seem to be in a good position.”
Policing in Ripon came under a barrage of fire last night at a packed public meeting at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre.
Insp. Alex Langley, who heads Ripon’s neighbourhood policing team, chaired the hour-long meeting and faced a potent mix of concerned residents and newly-elected city councillors.
The councillors came fresh from weeks of pre-election doorstep meetings where thousands of voters put Ripon’s recurring problem of anti-social behaviour top of the agenda.
Among the attendees were residents who have suffered violent attacks at the hands of young thugs and witnessed their property being destroyed in incidents for which nobody appears to have been prosecuted.
Youths with iron bars attacked this car in a residential street, as the owner rang 999 and waited for police to arrive.
A taxi driver, who has both suffered and witnessed violence while on the rank in Market Place East, has also been threatened and seen hooded youths using iron bars to smash cars and house windows in the street where he lives.
He asked Insp. Langley:
“How many people have been identified, arrested and prosecuted after being caught on city centre cctv or reported by somebody who has rung 101?”
When Insp Langley said he did not have that information, the taxi driver responded:
“It is clear to me that the CCTV cameras are not being monitored by anybody. In the past you could see the cameras moving, showing they were in use, but that doesn’t happen any more.”
City centre CCTV failings
The Mayor of Ripon, Councillor Eamon Parkin asked:
“With the CCTV all around Market Square, why has nobody been arrested and prosecuted for any of the four attacks on the Cabmen’s Shelter?”
No arrests have been made or prosecutions brought against the vandal or vandals who have targeted the Cabmen’s Shelter
Insp Langley replied:
“You can have the best quality CCTV images, but if the vandals are wearing hoodies and have their faces covered — it’s difficult to identify them.
“The latest attack on the Cabmen’s Shelter was reported three days after the vandalism was noticed.
“Do you want officers to spend their time looking through three days’ of CCTV footage?”
There was a resounding response of ‘yes’ from the floor.
Cllr Pauline McHardy said:
“The shelter is a rare building that belongs to the city and was refurbished at a cost of £22,000 and we want to catch and prosecute the vandals”
Cllr Andrew Williams said:
“When charges were brought in by Harrogate Borough Council for parking on Market Square, the money raised was supposed to be used to pay for the CCTV cameras and monitoring, so what is happening with that money now?
“It looks as if the cameras covering Market Square are not fit for purpose and footage being captured by them is not being monitored.”
Police and Crime Commissioner did not attend
Cllr Williams said that this and other matters impacting on the effectiveness of policing in Ripon had been raised with North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe, to whom a formal complaint had been made by the city council.
He said:
“We are still awaiting a response from her and it is very disappointing to say the least that she is not in attendance tonight to hear the concerns raised by Ripon’s residents.”
Cllr Barbara Brodigan, who is newly-elected to serve on the North Yorkshire unitary authority as well as the city council, said:
“We were told by former commissioner Julia Mulligan that the money raised from selling the police station on North Street would be used to pay for more police officers, but there is no evidence of this and people are not receiving the high visibility policing that they want.”
Unanswered 101 calls
In addition to use of CCTV and police resources, concerns were raised throughout the meeting about the delay in getting a response to 101 calls.
A resident told the meeting:
“When I rang up to report a gang of youths causing trouble near my house, I got no reply and after the same happened on another occasion, I just gave up, thinking that I was wasting my time.”
That feeling of frustration was echoed throughout the meeting and heightened when Councillor Tony Duncan was told by Insp Langley that he would need to submit a Freedom of Information request to find out how many 101 calls to Ripon police go unanswered.
An estimated 80 people attended the meeting, many of them standing.
At the start of the meeting when Insp Langley showed a graph indicating a downward trend over the past 22 month of recorded anti-social behaviour incidents in the Minster Ward, his presentation was interrupted by Cllr Williams, who said:
“I’m sorry, but I have to stop you there. These statistics are flawed, by virtue of the fact that so many people who try to get through on 101 give up after being kept waiting for so long.
“Showing a graph like this and presenting it as fact, does not reflect the actual experience of thousands of people that I and other councillors were told about on the doorstep before the election.”
The 101 problem
Insp. Langley accepted that there is a problem with the 101 system that needs to be resolved and throughout the meeting, pointed out that he and fellow officers are doing their best for Ripon, often ‘with their backs against the wall.’
Clllr McHardy said:
“We appreciate you coming here tonight and answering our questions and would like to point out that comments made here are not aimed at you, but are for those senior to you who make the decisions and need to provide you with the resources that you need to do your job.
“There has been a sizeable increase in the precept that we pay through our council tax for policing in Ripon, but the commissioner is nowhere to be seen this evening to tell us what she is going to do to support you and your officers.”
Police: meeting ‘highlighted real challenges’
After the meeting, Insp Langley in an email to the Stray Ferret, said:
“It was a really good meeting and highlighted some of the real challenges that Ripon face. There is a real balance to be had around national type challenges and those wider issues such as 101, recruitment, funding and HBC CCTV that it’s really important that we discuss.
“Equally there is limited scope and control that I have on those topics but it’s good to discuss them.
“I hope at the next meeting that we can spend less time on those wider issues as we have discussed them and focus more on local Ripon issues. I would have liked to have focused more on the today problems and areas that I can direct my teams towards. The next meeting we should be able to get more into that level of detail and discuss other issues.”
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Bid to break Ripon’s ‘wall of silence’ protecting criminals
Ripon residents who witness, or know about violent, anti-social and other criminal activity in the city, are being urged to contact Crimestoppers.
The charity, which is independent of the police, wants to overcome a ‘wall of silence’ that is stopping some criminals from being brought to justice.
It guarantees 100 percent anonymity to anyone with information that can help to crack Ripon’s persistent crime problem, as highlighted in a Stray Ferret report in December.
Crimestoppers is encouraging residents, who may not want to speak directly to the police, to call its confidential freephone number 0800 555 111 or visit Crimestopper-uk-org and complete a simple anonymous online form.
The charity said the community has a vital role to play in helping to stop crimes such as burglary, theft from cars, vans and shops, drug dealing, weapons and violence, but added:
“People know those who regularly bring crime to the area, but may not want to speak directly to the police. Crimestoppers is here to help and offers a safe and trusted anonymous option.”
‘Fearful of retribution’
Gemma Gibbs, Yorkshire regional manager for the charity, said:
“Some people are fearful of retribution, and that’s probably the main reason why people contact us. They’re scared that if somebody found out that it was them that reported an individual or a particular crime that has happened, they’re fearful of what might happen to them or what might happen to their family.
“We want to make sure that people who are fearful for that reason know that they can still do something and they can still report that information. But our guarantee is that they will contact us and nobody will ever know that they’ve actually reported to us. We take that information and we pass it onto the police.”
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Ms Gibbs, added:
“Last summer there were concerns around antisocial behaviour and a small number of people were really concerning the residents. A teenage boy was attacked in August last year and shopkeepers were being attacked as well.
“They don’t just impact the individuals, they can have a real impact on families and the people around them, so we want to really highlight the work that we do to let the community of Ripon know that they don’t have to stay silent. There doesn’t need to be that wall of silence and we are here for them.”
Two months before he resigned from office, former North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Philip Allott said he was confident that police had ‘got a grip’ on crime in the city, but he also spoke of the need to crack ‘the wall of silence’.
He said:
“One of the problems we have in Ripon is sometimes a wall of silence by certain families and that makes it quite difficult to apprehend people.
“The police will still get those people. It just takes a bit longer.”