On Friday 24th January, I had a very helpful catch up with our local police leads, especially regarding drugs, county line activity, speeding, burglaries and aggressive begging.

68 new officers passed out from Essex Police training this week and another 12 PCs are coming to join the Chelmsford and Maldon team.

Progress is being made on tackling drug dealing and the police have been arresting dealers every week. This is often thanks to information from local residents. Please do keep reporting any incidents you see. For a number of reasons, the police often can't give specific feedback or make arrests public but they are hugely grateful for the intelligence they receive. The knife arches operations at Chelmsford Station were also extremely successful.

Regarding recent burglaries. These “Millennium Style” burglaries usually target high value cars. The perpetrators tend to target one area for a couple of days and them move on. Please do keep your car keys in a Faraday pouch to prevent them being cloned. The pouches are available on line or for free from the local police. Evidence from the public has been very helpful, especially CCTV or doorbell camera evidence.

Regarding aggressive begging, the city-centre team have been busy. Five notices have been served, two people have been taken to court and one of those was given a custodial sentence.

There is a new project underway to make it easier for those on our streets to access support services including health, mental health, housing and benefits advice.

There is going to be new activity on enforcing speed limits on key roads. Do please drive carefully, you have been warned!