Julie Minns
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Town and City Centre Safety
Julie Minns Excerpts(1 day, 15 hours ago)
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Baggy Shanker
Thank you, Mr Dowd. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson)—my fantastic MP—for her intervention. She is absolutely right: it is a partnership of investment, but people need to feel safe in our city centre.
As my constituent John told me, we can see how much effort and investment are being put into our city, from building housing to breathing new life into the shops and spaces in our city centre. I want every single resident and visitor to be able to take their family out for the day, meet up with friends and enjoy what the city centre has to offer, but the long-term success of regeneration depends on the community feeling safe to enjoy our city centre. As John also told me, he has real concerns about the safety of his family when they are out and about in Derby. Seeing drug users loitering on St Peter’s Street and on paths by the River Derwent has put him off popping to the shops and has stopped his wife going out running in our city centre altogether.
Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)
My hon. Friend makes the point about people needing to feel safe in their communities. One of the issues that many of us hear from our constituents about is illegal e-bikes speeding through our parks and town centres. Many reputable dealers, such as Bikeseven and Palace Cycles in my constituency, would never sell an illegal e-bike, but they are widely available. Does my hon. Friend agree that the time has come to ban the sale of illegal e-bikes and cut the problem off at source?
Baggy Shanker
It is simple: if they are illegal, they should be banned.
Unfortunately, John and his family are not alone. I hear those concerns reflected at my surgeries and in my inbox time and again. Families such as John’s tell me that they are worried about the drug and alcohol abuse they see on our streets.