Dear Sir,
When cycling along Preston Road on the Business Park, early evening last week, I came across a couple of suicidal motorbikers who were having a drag race, as they were using both sides of the carriageway and heading directly towards me at pace, I had no alternative but to quickly dismount and leap onto the footpath as they thundered past at what I estimate to be in the region of 120 – 130 mph (the speed limit is 40 mph).
This ‘game’ was continuous, forcing me to walk on the footpath for safety reasons, after several minutes of totally reckless behaviour, and fearing that somebody could be seriously injured or even killed, I decided ‘enough was enough’ and phoned the police on 101, having to wait and listen to all of the pre-recorded options until I was eventually invited to press ‘button 5’ to report a crime or incident, however, the call went unanswered for 5 minutes and 1 second before I hung up in frustration.
I tried once again to contact the police, this time a lady answered saying she would transfer me to someone who would take details, unfortunately the call again went unanswered and I had no alternative but to accept that the authorities weren’t interested.
In total it must have taken me at least 20 minutes to walk the full length of Preston Road and all of this time the bikers continued racing up and down with impunity.
They say that the UK, in principle, is ‘Policed by Consent’ whereas, in reality they have become an insipid woke organisation that is no longer fit for purpose, whose officers would rather investigate and record ‘non-crime incidents’ that don’t even constitute a criminal offence.
No doubt the general public would respond to my criticism by saying that there are not enough personnel, but this is simply not true. In 1960 there was approximately one police officer per 640 capita, whereas today there is approximately one police officer per 405 capita, this suggests there should be a lot more officers on the beat, not less, or is it a case of ‘quantity over quality’?
Name and address supplied