Hucknall property dubbed 'crime catalyst' is shut down after town residents demand action

The property, on St Mary’s Way in George Street, has been linked to high levels of crime, anti-social behaviour and drug activity over the past few months.

Matters came to a head at a fiery public meeting back in July when the police and councillors were slammed by a furious crowd of local residents who demanded the authorities did more to tackle the ongoing issues.

The order, obtained under section 76 and 77 of the ASB, Crime and Policing Act 2014, prevents anyone from accessing the property including the occupiers for a period of three months.

And Insp Jon Hewitt, Ashfield District commander, said the application could be extended for a further three months if necessary.

Coun John Wilmott (Ash Ind), who represents Hucknall North, said: "This property was identified as a crime catalyst and, put simply, it was causing misery for local people.

"This action is just the start and we’re looking at CCTV and will be continuing police and community protection officer presence to reassure residents.”

Insp Hewitt commented: "At a local community meeting on July 20, concerns were raised to which I explained I intended to utlilise more traditional tactics such as search warrants alongside premise closures where possible as often the criminal investigations can take several months so do not provide a prompt resolution.

“As promised, my officers conducted community surveys and it is with the support of the local community that we had the evidence to put before the court.

The process did take longer than I initially hoped so for those the address was impacting I wanted to explain the delays as I understand if you don't see the police perhaps the obvious conclusion is that we are not doing anything and that certainly was not the case.

"Firstly we had to prepare an application for a search warrant and book an appointment to obtain this with the court.

"Once we had this we then had to plan conducting the warrant and deal with the subsequent arrests.

"On the closure side we were fortunate that several members of the community were prepared to stand up and support a closure so arrangements were made to obtain a number of statements and hearsay accounts we could evidence.

"This amassed over 100 pages of evidence which was sent to the forces legal team who then had to prepare into court documents and create the legal closures notices to serve on the address.

“I still believe as a resolution to problem addresses this is an extremely powerful tool and hope those living close to the address will see positive differences within their communities.

"The process involves a lot of work which I suppose is imperative for the balance of due process.

"I don't imagine any of us would be happy with the police being empowered to simply come and evict us without a weight of supporting evidence.

"I appreciate the time these things take to come to fruition leave those living nearby suffering until the resolution and hopefully as we embed this way of working we will be able to speed up the process.”