Anger at lack of prosecutions over Shrewsbury anti-social behaviour
A group made up of councils and the police has expressed "frustration" that prosecutions for anti-social behaviour in Shrewsbury have not been carried forward – despite staff spending hours collecting evidence.
'Team Shrewsbury', which includes Shrewsbury Town Council, Shropshire Council and West Mercia Police, has contacted the Crown Prosecution Service over the situation.
Shrewsbury Town Council clerk Helen Ball said staff had spent a considerable time gathering evidence and had been disheartened at decisions not to proceed with prosecutions.
On one occasion a prosecution had reached court and council staff were present to give evidence only for the CPS to decide against continuing.
Mrs Ball said one case had related to a person who was training their dog to attack play equipment while another was based on a series of anti-social behaviour incidents on an estate.
She said: "That one went to court, the staff were there to give evidence and on the day they said it was not proceeding.
"Our issue is we only need one of these cases to go to court and for it to be taken seriously with a judicial process and then we can publicise it and say that people will get arrested and we will seek prosecutions for that type of behaviour.
"When it comes to things like this it is our CCTV and we have to go through it. It could be days and days just to pull out 20 seconds of something which is the last piece of the jigsaw.
"So when staff spend the best part of a week going through something and the CPS decide not to proceed you can see why they would think 'what's the point?'."
The CPS was not immediately able to respond to a request to comment.
