A top level crime summit meeting to thrash out an action plan to catch vandals and hooligans who commit crimes and intimidate people on a Witham housing shopping precinct is being held this week.

Police, shopkeepers, councillors and council officials, and members of the Humber Road Residents Association were due to meet yesterday (Thursday).

"This area has suffered from a high incidence of vandalism, intimidation and social problems for years and the time for talking is past, it's now time for some action," says Witham's Mayor, Cllr Michael Jones, who is heading the summit at Witham Town Hall.

"Some action was taken a few years ago to open up some of the areas where youngsters who caused trouble congregated, but now we are working with the police and we want to install CCTV cameras which will provide evidence they can use to prosecute.

"We will be pressing Braintree council for funds to make this a reality in the shortest possible time. They after all are the landlords of the precinct and the shops.

"Another option is to close the underpass which has effectively been taken over as an area for trouble makers, and provide a pedestrian crossing at road level.

"This is not just a forum for discussion, I want something to happen," said Cllr Jones.

But representatives of Humber Road Residents Association fear the plan may merely move the problem on somewhere else.

"While I am in favour of doing something about the trouble, I am not yet convinced this is the right approach," said Mrs Linda Green, chairperson of the association this week.

"We live in a non youngster friendly environment, and the real problem is that our children do not have any supervised facilities close by that they can use.

"There are troubles we know, but we feel they are caused by a minority - and CCTV seems to me to be side-stepping the issue, as it won't tackle the root cause of the problem, just move it on somewhere else."

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