Drug crime and street drinking to be targeted by police in High Street crackdown

South Yorkshire Police said neighbourhood officers working in the town had conducted a survey to find out more about people’s experience of working on and shopping in Mexborough High Street.

They received more than 500 responses from residents and business owners, highlighting the positives, especially the town’s community spirit, but also the negatives.

“There has been some really good work going on in Mexborough in recent months, including both enforcement activity and engagement with the community,” said PC Lizzie Rocher.

“But in order to ensure we are working to tackle the issues that matter most to our community, we launched the survey to find out a bit more about people’s current concerns.

“The overwhelming response was that people are proud to live and work in Mexborough, and that there is a real community spirit, which is great to hear.

“The issues people were concerned about included youth-related anti-social behaviour, street drinking and drugs.”

PC Rocher said she was working on initiatives to address residents’ concerns, including increasing high visibility foot patrols in key areas and orders to tackle street drinking.

She said there were also hopes of securing funding for activities such as football and cheerleading for young people.

“We have lots of plans and hopefully people will start to see some positive results in the coming weeks and months,” added PC Rocher.

“In the meantime though, we really need ongoing support from the community.

“If you are aware of antisocial behaviour or crime in your area, please report it to us.

“We can’t act on issues if we don’t know about them. You can contact us by calling 101, using our online portal on the website or contacting your neighbourhood team direct.”