Work underway to tackle 'nuisance’ rough sleepers in Wellington

Telford & Wrekin Council Leader, Lee Carter, who serves the Arleston & College ward, said that officers and the police "are on the case" when it came to tackling rough sleepers who are "causing a nuisance" in Wellington.

Speaking at a Wellington Town Council meeting on Tuesday evening, Councillor Carter said: “There’s been a meeting that details the work of the police.

“I’ll be totally honest – I thank then for that work but there’s always more they can do and should be doing. There are rough sleepers in the town who are refused help in terms of getting themselves into accommodation and having been served community protection notices.

“That’s the easy bit, the difficult bit is monitoring the breach of that and going through the criminal justice system. I think we can confident from a Telford & Wrekin Council and police perspective that we are on the case with that.

"You can secure millions of pounds in Wellington but you’ve got a massive piece of work to do to ensure the streets are safe as well.

“We’re limited in terms of what we can do. The police are ultimately responsible for arresting suspected criminals, but we’ve got to keep pushing them all the way to ensure they’re doing that.”

Councillor Carter added that some shops now have shutters, while extra CCTV has been installed, particularly in Wrekin Road car park.

“This is not about penalising rough sleepers,” said Councillor Carter.

“The borough council do as much as they can – the housing team there are fantastic in terms of engaging at the very earliest opportunity with people who have fallen on hard times and need that support.

“But you come to the point of people who aren’t accepting that support and are then going on to cause a genuine nuisance outside supermarkets and in alleyways.. We’ll see what else we can do but we need the police to be proactive and pursue the leads.”