Claims that parts of city centre are "being taken over by gangs"

[dutchman]

There's also call that more funding be made available to police



Areas of Coventry are being "taken over by gangs" at night it has been claimed, amid calls for more money to be provided to police.

The claim was made by Cllr Naeem Akhtar who says police find a knife or blade "every time" they go to places such as Lady Herbert's Garden.

Latest figures show that crime in Coventry has risen by 11.6 per cent in the past year, with a survey showing more people feel unsafe in the city than they did two years ago.

The current state of affairs has also led to a motion being made to council leaders calling for extra funding to be made available to West Midlands Police to help "keep the streets safe for all our citizens".

Cllr Akhtar, who represents the St Michael's ward, gave his scathing opinion on what's happening in the city centre during a scrutiny co-ordination committee meeting.

He said: "There have been some issues in the town centre - Lady Herbert's Garden, the Transport Museum - it's taken over by the gangs in the evening and there's a lot of intimidation.

"There have been some serious incidents in the city centre and as a council I think we do need to have a serious conversation with West Midlands Police.

"If you go in the evening to Lady Herbert's Garden you can see 50/60 youths there.

"If you see the West Midlands Police Twitter handle or St Michael's Police Twitter handle every time they go there there's a knife or blade which is not good for our city."

A motion has been put forward to be discussed at Tuesday's full council meeting.

It has been put forward by Cllr Richard Brown and seconded by Cllr Pervez Akhtar and states: "That this council notes the unprecedented rise in crime within the city.

"These are not just crimes against property such as burglaries, but a rise in crimes against persons.

"The effect of this on some of the residents in our local communities is to make them frightened, intimidated and in many cases isolated.

"The obvious solution to this it to give our police force the tools they need to do their job.

"There must be a more visible presence of officers on the streets and resources available for the detection of crime.

"Therefore, this council will petition the Government to act now and to make the funding available for our police force to carry out its duties and responsibilities in keeping the streets safe for all our citizens."