POLICE have named hotspots in towns they will target after detailing the priority list – after stepping up focus in other areas.
The Greater Manchester force is operating both Operation AVRO – which applies across the region and will next be in the borough on February 17 – and Operation Safer Tameside, which focused on violent crime towards women and girls on January 25.
And having detailed the successes of the first operation, specific neighbourhoods officers are targeting were listed.
Operation AVRO sees extra resources and specialist officers sent to a different district each month, targeting crimes members of the public in that district tell them they are most concerned about.
The last day saw a vehicle seized because of the driver having no insurance or MOT, six stopped for faulty lighting, two stopped for illegal tinted windows, one stopped for illegal number plates and nine stopped for speeding.
Four delivery vehicles were also stopped for the driver failing to wear a seatbelt.
Now officers have listed the areas of towns and the issues they are targeting, including anti-social behaviour on Ashton’s market ground.
Others include street drinkers in the grounds of Ashton’s St Michaels Church, issues involving then Town House homeless shelter, drug dealing in the Rowley Street and Kings Road area and neighbbourhood disputes in the St Peters area.
In Hyde, issues include drug dealing, shoplifting and vagrancy in the town centre, wheelie bin fires around the Johnsonbrook Road area and problems with youths in Hattersley.
Anti-social behaviour in Stalybridge’s night-time economy and in Top Mossley’s park have also been identified, as well as drug cultivating and dealing on Denton’s Yew Tree Road estate.
Tameside’s new Chief Superintendent, Rob Cousen, outlined from the off his intent of boosting the police’s visibility, as well as building trust with the people they serve.
He said: “We’re bringing more people into the custody office, putting bellies up against the counter and holding people to account.
“Those are good signs, we’re making good inroads but we’ve got some way to go yet.
“I’m working hard to see how we can efficiencies can be put into the system, so we can get more people out on the best doing the bobbying I did many years ago.
“There are lots of areas we’re looking at in all areas of policing in Tameside and there’s lots we’re going to be doing over the coming weeks and months.”