WITH the end of the World Cup and start of the Commonwealth Games, we are now well into the summer holiday period, so I wanted to reflect on some positive results for policing and communities during the holidays so far, and extend my thanks to parents and carers for their support in helping us to reduce anti-social behaviour (ASB) calls.
ASB calls are reduced for the period so far and many of the calls we are receiving relate to adults as opposed to children, so thank you to everyone who has heeded my earlier requests for support around this.
Wherever your support went during the World Cup, it is fair to say that although the final was not a great watch, Spain won because they played the best football in the final and consistently over the month of the tournament, which is a lesson in life that consistent performance and good preparation will yield results.
A lot of time and effort both in policing and from our key partners goes into preparing for the busy summer period, whether that is dealing with seasonal ASB or preparing to stage events like the Scottish Open, race days in Musselburgh or the Fringe by the Sea festival in North Berwick.
I would like to put on record my ongoing thanks and appreciation to our partners and you as members of the public for your support and assistance and, in some cases, patience, as I am aware that frequently these events do produce disruption around people’s daily lives.
Returning to a few emerging themes, I realise we have seen a few calls in particularly in relation to off-road and Sur-Ron-style bikes, which is not a new issue for us, but please continue to call sightings of these bikes in or phone Crimestoppers if you have information on where they are being stored and who is riding them.
As a result of your calls, we successfully seized four such bikes from different addresses in Musselburgh last week and will continue to take action around this issue whenever we can. Riding them dangerously on a road or, worse still, pavement is completely illegal and we will do all we can to stamp it out.
Continuing the theme of road safety, we have seen a slight increase in accidents on our roads involving pedestrians and cyclists over the last month. The fine weather undoubtedly draws more people outside and onto our roads, both as cyclists and pedestrians, so please drive carefully, adhere to speed limits, and give extra space and time to vulnerable road users.
This last weekend, we concentrated some Saturday-evening patrols around Musselburgh, particularly the riverbank, where I know some complaints regarding street drinking have been received. We’ve paid this area regular attention over the last few weeks and will continue to do so while the fine weather lasts.
The warm sunny weather has been great for spending time outside and I was down in Longniddry after work with my family for some rock-pooling and a chippy last week. What is clear is that the ground is still very dry despite recent rain and my final plea is to reiterate the guidance from the fire service and understand that East Lothian is at now at 'very high risk' of wildfires.
Be exceptionally careful around any barbecues you may be having or thinking of having, and note that East Lothian Council has now asked people not to use barbecues on their land.
Vegetation is now exceptionally dry and all it takes is one moment of irresponsibility to devastate an area which might be someone’s home, business, farmland or nature reserve, so my final plea is to be careful, respectful and look after the countryside for us all.
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