Opinion : Is crime and violence out of control in Wycombe town centre?

Once upon a time, many years ago, Wycombe was a quiet town. Nothing much ever happened and everyone lived peacefully.

In recent years, however a worrying undercurrent of crime, violence and hatred towards fellow citizens seems to have crept into to our once lovely town.

Take for example the news story that appeared on the news section of this website last weekend entitled ‘Woman seriously injured in ‘acid attack’ on Frogmoor, High Wycombe‘.

We never used to have things like that happen in Wycombe. Indeed there was a time when it would be a major news event if a cat got stuck up a tree and the fire brigade had to be called to get the feline down safely.

Nowadays hardly a week goes by without someone being injured in a ‘GBH attack’, a woman is sexually assaulted or other terrible events take place.

Just look at what has happened to some parts of the town in recent times.

Years ago Desborough Road was a nice shopping area where you could get almost anything you wanted. These days it has been overrun by fast food takeaways that are open late into the night and barbers shops.

Walk down Desborough Road today and you will come across gangs of hoodlums loitering menacingly on the pavement outside certain establishments. You may even see some premises with ‘look outs’ posted outside seemingly keeping watch in case a policeman happens to come along.

Things are so bad in Wycombe now that we have Public Space Protections Orders (PSPO’s) to try and maintain law and order. The PSPO’s are an attempt to stop the consumption of alcohol in the town centre and to stop activities relating to prostitution in the Desborough Road area.

Suppose you could go back in time to the Victorian age and speak to the residents of the town then. If you told them that in 2017 special PSPO’s would be needed to tackle prostitution they would be shocked. Sadly these days no bats an eyelid.

I fear we have to ask ourselves the question ‘Is crime and violence out of control in Wycombe town centre?’ and if it is then what can be done to put things right?

Women, children and the men of Wycombe should be free to walk around the town without fear of ending up as a number in the next edition of the crime statistics.

The forces of law and order should be cracking down on those trying to push Wycombe into the abyss and rooting out the trouble makers so the law abiding an innocent can go about their daily lives.

Wycombe doesn’t have to be a crime infested dump, but sadly the actions of a small minority seem to cast a shadow over the majority.

What do you think?

My blogs are published every Tuesday and Friday evening around 8.00pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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