Fireworks Update

At the Police and Communities Together meeting earlier this week Cllr Craig Timmins and I asked for an update on the police action in terms of Fireworks.

This is being coordinated by Bradford East neighbourhood policing team, with Leeds West neighbourhood police supporting due to the amount of calls raised from our area.

Due to a number of calls referencing The Grand on Dick Lane as the venue, Bradford East policing team held an operation there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a number of units in position from 5pm-midnight.

In this time 16 calls were made to the police reporting fireworks, the majority from areas in Leeds, and at none of these times were they let off at The Grand itself. We were informed The Grand also has clear signage in place to say fireworks are not permitted and they have a deposit process in place where this is lost if fireworks or other antisocial behaviour occurs.

There are still questions we want to raise about this as it may be that customers from The Grand are then setting fireworks off in nearby public places, which would still be a concern for the Bradford licensing department to look at, regardless of if it is happening on site. We will be taking this up with Bradford Council directly.

This does again highlight the importance of reporting these incidents at the time they are happening, and with any evidence on the location being provided – unless police can track down the specific location it is difficult for them to identify the culprit.

The best way to report is via the Live Chat at: https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/LiveChat

Any questions, please let myself or Cllr Craig Timmins know:

peter.carlill@leeds.gov.uk

craig.timmins@leeds.gov.uk