“uuuum interesting Jenson interesting. I like your style. A bit Judge Dredd and a bit Bob the builder. So you think stopping appealing to the influx of dossers from other parts of the UK would be a good idea. I don't know, do tourists want to see streets with no druggie dossing criminals on them, it's a tough one. Interesting point.”

“One thing could be done is for the "powers that be" to talk to other holiday resorts such as Brighton and Bournemouth to see how they deal with the problem as it is not exclusive to Torquay but a national problem.”

“It's more than a national problem, it's an international problem. Homeless drug users from Glasgow come here because we take a more tolerant line then they have started to do in Scotland, so we now get the homeless from north of the border. 'Build it and they will come' how true those words are, we don't just accomodate local drug using and criminal homeless, we have built a hotel in the middle of a resort for them.”

“"Most crime is local" I was told by a DC to whom I loaned some premises to survey the comings and goings from a kind of bail hostel. There is usually a half mile wide circle of increased criminal activity from such premises. Things will noo change until we return to a criminal justice system which actually locks up offenders, not in the expectation of reforming them ( where did that come from ? ) but with the original purpose of custody which is to provide protection for law abiding citizens going about their lawful business”

“Wouldn't it be better if more resources were put into crime prevention? Then there would be fewer people in prison costing the taxpayers lots of money and fewer victim of crime, especially violent crime.”

“Interesting ivanovski, so we get an increase in crime from each of these places. An increase from the Leonard Stocks centre, and increase from the Newton Road Hostel, an increase from Thurlow House Offenders centre, an increase from Abbey road alcoholics centre, an increase from Skehlabalah doss house for druggies project. No wonder the herald has stopped printing the year on year crime stats of the centre of Torquay, and we had all those posters a few years ago telling us how the crime rate was falling. I think they all got knicked. That's the centre of Torquay that awaits any tourist family !!!”

“Looking at the crime file this week it looks as though our favourite liberal weekly newspaper are dropping the naming of hostels and just listing those addresses as No Fixed Abode. Though of course the Leonard Stocks Centre does appear as usual. Great use of tax payers money.”

“We need more gaol places because we have far more criminals who are in a "revolving door" justice system that simply re-cycles them back onto the streets" Claims that say "crime is down" are quite fallacious. There is the real number of crimes which victims are suffering from, there is reported crime, and there is recorded crime. The whole focus in recent years has been to manipulate the two latter figures so as to disguise the first figure. Not to mention the number of crimes committed by people already on bail for a previous crime. The cost of keeping someone in custody is never measured against the costs saved by having them out of circulation and not committing further crime. We are not given figures for the number of people killed by people who have already killed someone and are back in circulation. Criminal Justice has become a farce.”

“Ivanovski - That's what's happens when you have lying Labour polititians in power for 12 years, tough on crime tough on the causes of crime meant minipulate the figures and get everyone on benefits. What is so left wing and 'for the poor' about sitting in a council house all day long taking drugs and watching day time TV. Labour sold the working class out. Still only 4 currently active criminals appeard in the Heralds crimefile this week for assualt, burgulary and sex offences, who reside at the Leonard Stocks centre (not bad for a week) So at least our public money is being well spent in the centre of Torquay.”

“I see anoher active criminal from the Leonard Stocks centre has made the crimefile again this week.”

“the answer is harsher treatment, less tolerance. These people need to take responsibilty for themselves and if they can't then all benefits are cut. If they commit a crime, they get a custodial sentence. If the commit a second crime, a longer sentence, a third and an injunction is set up banishing them from coming within 50 miles of Torbay.

Also, more jobs are needed, with better pay, more investment in the Bay, including, buildings, shopping areas, Bar and club areas, cafe areas and fine dining.

The new link road should help with this. Torquay has been dying for the last 50 years, it used to be the classiest place in the country, now look at it, it is sad, people walk around the town with no pride in themselves, in saggy tracksuits and cheap baseball caps. Are there any people left in Torquay with any style?

The Town Centre looks tired, it needs a revamp from top to bottom, the Winter Garden and Fleet Walk are a disgrace, we need an area liek the new Princesshay. It is so frustrating, becasue from a distance, Torquay is still beautiful, and has so much potential.”

“This week had a sex offender who was staying at the Newton Road continuing to sex offend in Teignmouth.”

“Newton Lodge makes it's usual multi criminal apperance in this weeks 'Around the courts'. How much public funding does this place get !!!”

“Factory Row, Newton Road, NFA all appear in this weeks Herald 'around the courts'. Shocking figures, quite shocking.”

“How do you stop criminals with a virtual police force?, I had my car broken into on my drive during the night, I went to Paignton police station- CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC,number to ring displayed to ring, so I did and got through to ? PLYMOUTH ! where a civilian worker took my report to pass to the officers next day, she did not know where I actually lived and held out little hope of any action to recover my goods
but advised me to check the local 2nd hand shops myself.Come on down thieves,muggers,burglars Torbay is open for business.”

“Walked out of the town hall tonight at 5 o'clock and straight into what seemed to be a police raid on the Leonard Stocks centre, police cars everywhere, one guy in cuffs. Will probably go unreported in the Herald, hush hush.”

“Factory Row top of the list in this weeks around the courts. Just driven passed Factory Row and there was a police van, a police car, an ambulance and a paramedics car outside dealing with some incident. Good to see the council are cleaning up Castle Circus, the clowns are in the Town Hall.”

“I suppose we could fire the ovens, it would please the right wing except theres no money in dead slaves.”

“You can't walk around castle circus these days without getting the feeling that you are about to get mugged.”

“Move the people that stay in thE LSC in Factory Row to some tents on Dartmoor, feed them and give them some blankets of course.”

“Good to see the Leonard Stocks Centre making its usual appearance on the Heralds 'Around the courts'. What a legacy he left to Torquay.”

“Torbay council allow the Newton Road hostel, a hostel that reguarily houses sex offenders, to be opened around the corner from the girls grammar school and then closes a footpath that is used by the public near the grammar because 'undesirables' are using it. I remember the protests at the opening of the Newton Road hostel by a local resident, he put up signs saying 'sex offenders will be housed here'. Torbay Council made him take them down.”

“Crime does seem to be really bad in the bay at the moment, I just hope that the nice Mr Hogg can sort it out.”

“There has and always will be crime. The reporting and sharing information of crime has increased. These 'people' did not wake up one day and decide that they want be addicted to drugs or alcohol, have mental health issues or be homeless. Bad things happen to good people, as a result they struggle to cope with their lives and develop issues. In the 21st century, nobody should be living on the streets, they should be given the opportunity and support to change their lives for the better, to have a positive role in society and live a normal life. If you ask anyone currently addicted, homeless or mentally ill, I'm sure they would swap their life for yours in a heartbeat.”

“Yes of course, they didn't choose to take the drugs, society made them. They didn't open their nostrils to snort coke, society did it for them. They don't choose to live on benefits supplimented by crime, the joker out of batman made them do it, they don't choose to beat people up, they have just watched too many Rocky films and they don't choose to come to Torquay for their drugs counselling but Torquay council do make it a very attractive idea.”

“The transient homeless single male isssue is common to many southern England seaside resorts.
While employed for nearly 20 years with DSS/DWP (plus Social Services, and the voluntary sector) in Torbay, the offices I had most dealings with regarding transfer claims for NFA males were Ilfracombe, Newquay, Bournemouth, and Brighton. It was often a clear case of 'if I'm homeless in a concrete jungle then I might as well get the same benefits and be homeless by the sea'.

Now, the hostel issue is a difficult one, Torbay as an authority is only obligated to provide help for 'vulnerable people' which includes, the elderly, sick and families with children etc. Single healthy adults are not classed as vulnerable so they either sleep on the streets or seek a bed at a hostel etc because they generally do not have the money needed to pay a deposit for bedsit/flat or whatever. A large proportion of homeless single people have mental health issues (classing them as vulnerable) or drug/alcohol addiction, which if stated by a doctor as the reason they cannot work, puts them in the 'vulnerable' list, obligating assistance by the local authority.
It is more a central government issue in my opinion, local authority hands are tied up by the rather blunt, prescribed definition of who a vulnerable person is.

Seaside resorts do not only attract the single folk though, far from it. Many a jobless family turn up in the bay declaring themselves homeless, knowing full well that the kids make them 'vulnerable' and the council is obligated to house them. It is a very clever ruse to gain fast access to social housing as well, the cost of the B & B placement is so high that Torbay as an authority will do everything it can to get the families into a rented home. As such, they are treated at the higher end of priority for social housing, and even if it takes a few months holding out in the B & B by being unable to afford a deposit for a private landlord, at some point they get their dream of a cheap, taxpayer subsidised, housing association flat or house.

I know from personal experience, with thousands of different welfare client groups over the years, that there are many genuinely vulnerable people seeking various forms of statutory assistance in the bay, but many more well experienced service users are playing the sytem to the detriment of those most deserved.
Answers on a postcard anyone?”

“The usual case of the I can't be bovvered just give me my benefits draining the money and the life blood from all those who work hard. We need to stop giving to charities that support such wasters and stop supporting political parties based in london that see it as helping the poor and vulnerable, giving alcoholics and drug users extra money to by alcohol and drugs helps no one.”

“Around the courts" this week. A bumper week for drug, theft and violent crime for the usual suspects in the usual addresses. Newton Road, Factory Row, Lucius street, Abbey road and of course they casual town centre hostel toutist NFA.”

“Why is there so many Leonard Stocks residents in the courts every week, wot is this place, a hotel for criminals.”

“Crime must be getting bad in Torquay, the Herald haven't printed the 'around the courts' this week. The last time crime took a turn for the worst they stopped printing the year on year crime reduction figures, they had started to rise. Truth is always the first casualty.”