Call for action over Shrewsbury's antisocial rough sleepers amid opposition to homeless shelter plan
Calls for action on anti-social behaviour in a town centre have been made amid a deluge of opposition to a homeless shelter in the heart of a community.
Objections against Shropshire Council plans to turn Coton Hill House in Shrewsbury into a permanent homeless shelter have more than doubled since a heated public meeting last week, in which residents told of burglars climbing into their back gardens, drug deals taking place in plain sight and people urinating in the street.
During the meeting, people told of their fears that rough sleepers who commit antisocial behaviour (ASB) in Pride Hill and other areas of the town centre would be moved to Coton Hill as part of the plans.
Team Shrewsbury statistics show that around 250 anti-social incidents relating to rough sleepers take place in the town centre each month.
Shrewsbury's police team have been employing a variety of tactics to tackle such criminality, including regularly running Operation Darwin - where plain clothes officers are directed to catch offenders in the act by an officer monitoring the town's high-quality CCTV.
