[speaker001:] Right Mr erm... Have you always lived in Nottingham?
[speaker002:] Well I live in in live in Nottinghamshire, born and bred at a place called which is it's about er twenty four miles North of Nottingham. A small mining town. Brought up well as I was actually born in the village and that's where I've come home to roost when I left the army.
[speaker003:] So you when did you join the army?
[speaker002:] Nineteen er s nineteen seventy two. I came out in nineteen eighty four.
[speaker003:] And th did you join Group Four then?
[speaker002:] Yes yes I was I had a month's terminal leave er I'd er I'd heard that there was a job going, er phoned them up on the on the Monday, had an interview Tuesday, started the Friday.
[speaker003:] So were you a sergeant when you started?
[speaker002:] Yeah. Yeah everybody starts off as a sergeant. And er you do you do probation for three months in in which time you're vetted thoroughly. And if your if your vetting doesn't come up to scratch, then you can be terminated, it's in your contract. And er I've been with them ever since, just come up to two year period. I've enjoyed it quite a lot. Seen a a lot of other things I wouldn't have seen if I'd have been working down a pit or behind a shop counter or something. Met a lot of er different people. [LAUGHTER].
[speaker003:] Is that the sort of thing most people?
[speaker002:] Well at the moment with the the mining industry as it is, unless you've got had you've got or had a relative working at the pit, the local, you haven't got the s chance of in. When I left school er if you went to the pit, it was the last of the last jobs. But now to get into the pit it's one of the jobs to go to. I would say [breath] ninety five percent of people in the village are employed at the local colliery.
[speaker003:] Mm. Erm er. Erm what was actually you brief when you move onto the flats.
[speaker002:] Well our main brief was that we was to try and minimize and control the vandalism, or any property belonging to the county council. Er to make sure none of the empty flats was broke into, and items removed such as copper tanks, electrical fittings. To reassure the remaining tenants who were left behind, or moving out er Mm. Tt. What's the word? Well try and look after flats for the council. As. Erm make sure there was no vandalism done. But we found out that most of the vandalism was done in the daytime when we were away. [LAUGHTER] And er reassure reassure the tenants that that that are left behind.
[speaker003:] So when did you actually move on to the flats?
[speaker002:] We started the contract in April of last year. I think it's the around about the first or the second of April. Er so that's over a year now. About what? Fourteen month fifteen month? Mm.
[speaker003:] So what's you what are what are your actual powers?
[speaker002:] Well we've got no s we've got no more powers than what a a normal person civilian has got. Er our main thing is, if we see something happ happening which we justifies erm the police being called, then we will call the police. But if we see an office that's being committed by y somebody breaking into an empty flat, or we actually see somebody breaking into a occupied flat, then as a as a citizen, you can enforce a citizen's arrest.. We've never arrested anybody yet, I think erm the uniform does the job. And it deters more people than u use actually having to er resort to different means. But erm the police react very quickly. If we say, There's somebody suspicious knocking about the flats, or, There's a person on such a walk doing something we think's a little bit er mysterious, then they'll sen they'll send somebody round as quickly as they can.
[speaker003:] So you've got quite a good relationship
[speaker002:] Oh we've got a fantastic relationship with the police. Because also we can act as eyes for them as well. Er I don't know but I would i I would reckon the crime rate since we've been on the flats, even though the the flats are emptying out,h h has dropped er dramatically. Erm as you know yourself you walk round the flats now, it's dead. There's hardly anybody about but if you was here a year ago, this was a little island on it's own little concrete island on it's own. And there was activity twenty four hours a day. You could go out to the walkways, you could talk to somebody twenty four hours a day. If you was here.
[speaker003:] So you think the community's certainly gone down since you?
[speaker002:] In number-wise?
[speaker003:] Well in the way people act.
[speaker002:] Well you i it took a a while for us to be accepted about six month I would say six month. Because when they first saw us we was eve everything from the the D H S, to the police, to the probation office. Anything that could could check up on people and ru that's what we was called. Gradually the people realized that we was here to look after the flats. And we weren't gonna you know, bust the door down at six o'clock in the morning and do a drugs raid. Or other illicit things that's going on. And they accept us for what we are and we've got a good erm relationship with the the people w who are left in er the flat complex.
[speaker003:] Mhm. Er you said about breaking into them and things like that, erm er a lot of tenants we've spoken to er seem to be er they seem to thing there's a lot of flats. Er do you do you get a lot of breaking into flats?
[speaker002:] when we come we come on duty. Approximately we a we start on at six o'clock. By which time the tenants have come home from work or they've been out for a few hours, say they've been out from twelve till six. And they come home, they find that the the flat's been broke into, and that's the first thing we know about it. Er we've had one or one or two erm break-ins while during the night. But on such a large complex like this, we can't be everywhere at the same time. And er the the problem is we get round who who do you know who lives in what flat. Erm if we see you know, if we see somebody walking down a walkway, and he's got a stereo in his arm, arms should I say, and he puts it into a car then obviously it a it arouses our suspicion, we'll take a quick note of the car's registration number, and we'll pass the relevant information through to Police Station. It's up you know and they'll act on that. Erm we had one morning, one of our sergeants saw what he thought was a break-in. Was in in the. We got on on to the phone to Road Police Station, and within possibly two, three minutes, there was four, five police officers round there. And it turned out chap had been locked out and he forced one of his windows himself to get in. But they they surrounded the flat cos they thought that it was a bur a burglary was in process. So er we achieved something there, even if it [LAUGHTER] you know it it put the frighteners up the chap, police looking out the windows and you know, saw our reaction when the police turn up, it makes them think again.
[speaker003:] Erm what actually happens if someone comes up to you in the night and says, My house has been burgled. What do you do?
[speaker002:] Well first thing we do is we'll if I've got two two sergeants at the flats, I tell the occupant to go back to the flat, and wait for the two s two sergeants turning up. They'll go back to the The two sergeants' ll turn up. They'll go in with the with the occupant, at the same time we'll inform Road Police Station. And then erm it's up to Road Police Station to deal with it. If we find a flat that's been broke into. And it's an occupied flat, then we will not enter it or we will not enter it until we've had erm till Road Police Station's been informed, and then we'll work on their advice. And then they'll say, Right we'll have a bobby in there in ten minutes, or, We can't get anybody there till such and such, so what we will do is we will secure a door, until somebody can come and have a look at it. Erm if a window's been smashed, then we'll we'll get the window boarded up to secure the flat the best possible way.
[speaker003:] You do all that yourself do you?
[speaker002:] No we we we've got er a contact phone number and er a contractor comes in and boards it up. Or secures the door. If we can't put a clamp on it, then we we can't do a clamp. Say the doorframe's been busted, then er we've got authority to contact the board the people who board it up. And then they'll they'll get the flat secure.
[speaker003:] Now in what what other things go on in the flats that you get involved with?
[speaker002:] Er what other things go on in the flats? Fires. Erm unknown people have got their little things about setting chutes on fire, the rubbish chutes. What they normally do is they get some paper, they light it, they'll drop it, and it falls straight into the rubbish chute underneath. appropriate action. Er... nine out of ten you can see it. Cos there's smoke. Well I mean first of all you'll smell it. you find out where it is, and you inform base which is here, that there's a fire, say in one of the chutes, and er the fire brigade will be informed. And the fire brigade'll turn up and deal with it. And we put in a report to the county council in the morning saying there was a fire. Erm we've had a couple of flat fires. There again er there was smoke seen coming out of a bedroom, so we first of all informed base again, that there's a fire, in a flat, secondly we did was break down the door. Cos we took it that there was somebody probably take it that there's somebody inside the flat. Until either the the emergency services turn up and say there's nobody in the flat. Or that the occupant turns up himself and says there's nobody in the flat. Er and this this case the there was a fire in a flat, the chap had gone out to work, we didn't know he'd gone out to work, so we broke First of all we informed the fire brigade was on the way, we broke down the door, quick look in the flat, best possible way we could look, and the fire brigade turned up and dealt with the flat. We secured the door.. Erm we've had one attempted well one arson attack in the the period which we've been on the flats. Er disagreement between er two partners er one partner set fire to another partner's flat, by smashing a window, setting alight the curtains. We were I was I was patrolling at the time, with me partner. We heard the glass being broken. So we we moved towards the sound of the glass, and there's there's two people in the the garden, so we went down to have a look at them. As we as I approached them, I saw flames coming from the the curtains. And the two people in the garden started to walk away. So rather than cause er an incident there and then, I informed my partner to follow them back to wherever they went, which time I got on the radio back to control, that we required the police and the fire brigade. Er but he followed them all the way back to a flat on th on the on the complex. The police came and dealt with them and the arrest was made. So therefore, in my mind, we saved probably forty, fifty family lives that night. And er it was a good night's work. The fire brigade eventually turned up, because the police had cancelled they tu turned them ou turned them out again. And and things settled nice and quietly and all the blue lights come flying down here, and so we had to they was about to chop down this blokes door and we said, Whoa whoa whoa. Said, The fire's out mate. And we showed them where the fire was, they checked that out. Because er under no c circumstances if we have a fire, do we say the f we put the fire out out ourselves. Even if we've had a fire and if it's burnt itself out then we will we will call the fire service to make sure it is out. And they're the specialists we're not.
[speaker003:] Erm do you have much trouble with erm squatters and vagrants and.
[speaker002:] When we first moved in, April last year, it was a bit bit cold. Problem with the stairwells is that they're heated. The heating pipes coming through for the the central heating and the hot water. We had one or two, one or two vagrants knocking about, and we just asked them to move on, and they moved on. We've had one or two juveniles that's run away from home sleeping in the in the outhouses. There again, rather than wake them up, and the they do a runner, we get on to the phone, tell the police that there's a a juvenile or what looks like to be a juvenile, sleeping in in part of the flats but where it's a a stairwell, an ou outhouse, erm even under the stairs, then they'll come along and check it out. Nine out of ten it's a runaway. And they'll just, they'll eit you know, just hand it over to the police and that's as far as we'll go.
[speaker003:] Mm. Erm erm when you're patrolling the flats erm have you ever come erm into any sort of physical danger yourself? You and your your patrol?
[speaker002:] No but erm I've had one or two people swear up to us. Er I had or trying to provoke us, and erm what our lads have been informed is rather than take a situation on like that, it's better just to turn around and walk away. If they call you names or they spit at you, or or whatever, it's better to walk away and live another day than to get your head kicked in and end up in hospital. Erm y you get a lot of well we did get a lot of verbal abuse from the young the youngsters. But there again you you just let it go in one ear and out the other ear. That's why you've got to have somebody who's a mature natured person, for this for this k kind of job. You know probably if you got a younger person, he probably would have been after him, square up to him, and erm. Cos if you ever squared up to one of these or anybody in the flats, people'd just come out of the out of the woodwork. And as far as as er physical threats, what, somebody actually being hit? No.
[speaker003:] I mean you read you read a lot in the press erm about people being mugged on the flats and er break-ins and all this sort of thing. Are they actually as bad as the press makes out, the flats?
[speaker002:] Well before we came on the flats I would imagine they was. But now we're on the flats, no. There again, how long does it take to mug a person? Ten, fifteen seconds. And you can do a lot in fifteen seconds, you could murder somebody in fifteen seconds. Erm nobody's gonna mug a person if they see us coming, or if they see a bobby coming. Nine out of ten they'll wait until we've gone passed, or even the police have gone passed, before they'll commit an offence. But since we've been on the flats, there's probably been half a dozen muggings. Some in the daytimes, some at night. But there again, it's people walking through the flats, who don't live on the flats, that get mugged. Erm or people attending the blues, walking from one end to the other. You know people who's coming in from o the outside to come on to the flats, they're the people at risk. Erm but er we've had one or two people come to us, and report that they've been mugged, there again we get straight on the phone to the police. And let them them deal with it. We we'll do the reporting and that's that's as far as we'll go. But if we there again if we see somebody that's being mugged, and we think that we can assist, or we can deal with it, then we will, you have to take every situation as it comes. Y erm it's like you don't go running up to something if you're gonna come worse off. If there's half a dozen of them and there's two of you, and there's one person being mugged, erm then it's better to to stand on and watch, and report b back to the base here, who can inform the police, who can get the necessary assistance out to deal with it. And er that's what we do.
[speaker003:] Erm [cough] how do you think the people in the flats erm look at er you patrolling them?
[speaker002:] Well I think they're helping us erm possibly if this system had been started a few years ago, then possibly flats complex, wouldn't have got the bad reputation it has today. Because I go home and I people say, Oh where are you working? I will say, Oh I'm doing a job at flats. And, Oh! flats like then. as if you walk round with a shotgun armoured tank. And I say, No it's a quite pleasant place to work. And they say, Ah come off it, we've heard about it, we've read it in the papers. one small aspect in the paper of, can into a page a full page. But whereas say something that happens say Well say take for example where I live in. Er somebody being attacked there might make a paragraph. It's it's it's er quietened down, and people do accept us. And people have stopped us and have said, If this i if you'd have been on on the flats, say six, ten years ago, erm it wouldn't have got the reputation it has now. Because the senior members on the flats that have been living here since it was put up, when they came to live on complex, they reckoned it was the place to come and live. And they was proud to come and live in it. But er things have deteriorated. Till we've got the situation we've got now.
[speaker003:] Do you erm have you got to know people a bit on the flats?
[speaker002:] We we we know one or two people erm more or less by face, not by name. Er there was quite a few people moved out now. There was a a an old lady down we talked to, she's out most nights. There's one or two people knocking around that'll talk to you. Erm we more or less know the young the young thug element as such. Er and they seem to stay well clear of us when they see us walking round. Yes we know quite a few. In those areas.
[speaker003:] you said you got quite a good rapport.
[speaker002:] Well I think we have now. Yes. Er without having a good relationship with the people in the flats, er if I mean some people if they say see something going off, they'll turn their you know, turn their back and they don't want to know. There again, on the other hand, if some one or two other people see something going off, they'll come and tell us. As I've said before, we can't be all over the flats at the same time. So we rely on, to a certain degree, on a bit of help from the tenants.
[speaker003:] Now, how do you patrol the flats? Erm do you go out in teams?
[speaker002:] Well at the moment we've just started a new patrol programme and er we two two sergeants wal patrolling the the walkways. And I had one sergeant downstairs patrolling the er street level. Er... The sergeant downstairs, if he sees any trouble or he finds something that's going off or bumps into something, then he can radio back into base again. And then we can take appropriate action from there. Erm the two lads on the flats, there's two of them together, so that anything that they they meet or come up against, they can handle themselves. But in our time, it's very quiet now so we've we've moved into a different routine again, where I have two two sergeants out at one time, changing over er frequently so they don't get bored.
[speaker003:] Is it is there not that much to do now in the flats?
[speaker002:] Well yeah there there's a there's a lot to do, erm with half the flats being empty and Or say two thirds of the flats being empty. Erm you've got quite a few people walking through. Erm these people are possibly the element we don't want on the flats. Cos they're walking through the area and they'll if they've had a few pints, Let's go down Oh we'll walk through Flats and we'll smash one or two lights up, smash one or two windows. Erm I wouldn't say it's it's gone quiet at night, we've got to be more aware now anyway. Than what we had we was doing last year. As I said last year, there were quite a few people out on the walkways, so it was very rarely you got anybody walking through. Now two thirds of the residents have gone, there's a lot of walkways open, there's a lot of windows there to smash, there's a lot of you know, try setting fire setting fire. So we've got to be more aware during the like what we call the silent hours.
[speaker003:] Erm just really. Erm d now the flats are quieter, do you find there are as many blues on the flats?
[speaker002:] Well erm At the moment we've got one one blues on. Erm and that is not half as what it was last year. But then again, we can say that we've had a quiet week Saturday and Sunday, or from Friday till through till Monday morning, it can be packed out with people just visiting the blues.
[speaker003:] Do they do they seem to create much trouble, these blues?
[speaker002:] Yeah. Er as I said before, if we get some verbal abuse from people going to the blues, then we know that it was outsiders coming in. they just accept us for what we are, they know that we're not gonna upset their lifestyle, we're not gonna start raiding their place at six in the morning. They accept us for what we are, and that's it.
[speaker003:] Mm. So you've got no powers to go sort of talk about their noise,?
[speaker002:] No. If somebody comes and reports to us that erm that the music's loud, all we'll do is refer them to Road Police Station. And let them do.
[speaker003:] Erm do you have erm much to do with the housing people? That are on the flats.
[speaker002:] Yeah we've got the daily You mean the council staff?
[speaker003:] Yes.
[speaker002:] Yeah we've got the daily contact each morning with one of the, one of the er council employees, they'll come up approximately between eight and nine, and we'll hand over any incidents reports that have been made during the night. And we'll er inform them of erm the state of the flats during the night, whether it was quiet busy, erm anything we've seen knocking about, erm and things in general.
[speaker003:] So does it work quite well for them?
[speaker002:] Oh yes we've they are subscribing, and if we wasn't keeping a good erm a good liaison with them, then I don't think we'd be here now.
[speaker003:] Erm wh wh what what's it like working on Flats, I mean, have you worked anywhere similar?
[speaker002:] No I haven't worked anywhere similar, in in this employment. Er but working on Flats, taken to the job. Erm when I came on to the flats I came with an open mind and I was gonna you know take things as I as I met them. Erm we treat everybody the same, we look after everybody as I say, the best we can. Erm and it's just a normal job. Yes t to a certain extent, I expect. Erm there's nothing hard about it, there's nothing easy about it. Erm the best thing about this job is, you don't know what's round the corner. As I say one day it might be quiet, and the next day, something might happen. Erm since we've we've worked the flats I think, the the lads who've worked up here have dealt with a a very broad erm a very broad aspect of incidence. And th they will they will have dealt with more incidents up here than I would imagine any other erm place of employment that they'll go to. And it probably beds them in slightly to go off to somewhere else.
[speaker003:] Is there anything you haven't worked with on the flats yet?
[speaker002:] Well we haven't had a murder, and we haven't ha a rape. And er erm that's about it I think. [LAUGHTER] But er who knows we're probably here for another two years, we might find a dead body somewhere. Erm it's a bit frightening when you if you find somebody dossing down somewhere. You can see a body and like, Oh what's that? and then you you know, you're a little bit er relieved when it moves. [LAUGHTER]. Or it stands up or you know you you go and put it in the cupboard, and all of a sudden there's a there's a there's a face looking at you, you know. Yeah, you're hoping Your heart er beats rising.
[speaker003:] I think personally erm I mean yo would you like to live on the flats?
[speaker002:] No there's no gardens. Of such. [LAUGHTER] Erm the tenants are not allowed to keep animals. But er as you know looking round the flats, they do. Erm and I... But there again, if it was a controlled access to the flats, and people wasn't allowed to wander through the flats. Er probably yes. Erm but then again, if anybody's got any kiddies, which I have, it's not it's not a Well I don't reckon it it is a place to bring children up in. Erm if there was probably me and me wife on me own, and it was a co controlled access, and there weren't people walking through, probably come and live here.
[speaker003:] What do you mean by controlled access?
[speaker002:] Well er if take it as if threw a b a fence all the way round the the flats. Well that this starts off by keeping the outsiders out. They do most of the damage, knocking on doors, daub writing all over the place. So what I mean by controlled access is nobody comes on i within to this flat complex, without er the se the security team knowing. So say for example you was a tradesman. And you was say I'm going to come to the exit point, I'm going to say come in here. And unless has told us that you're coming, then you don't get on the flats. That's one way to keep traders out. I mean how many times has somebody knocked on your door, Oh I'm Joe Bloggs I've come to sell dusters? You know,. And people don't want it. Er it's like kids or people walking through from Road to Road. They'll ni they'll nip through the flats. They'll deposit their rubbish, you know. If they've had a few beers, they m they may leave something else behind. People don't want it. Erm and that's what I mean by access. Controlled access. Erm aren't complexes, in my view in my view only, in complexes of this size, it should be a controlled access. And er you just don't get bad people wandering round the flats. The only people you get on the flats, is the people who live on the flats, and the people who's been invited into the flats. Erm and that's that's my view. [break in recording] And that's right down here.
[speaker003:] Wh what what's this? And this is all sealed up as well is it?
[speaker002:] Yeah it's all sealed up. All these doors. We used to have a a dosser here.
[speaker003:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Frightened the living daylights out of him when I opened the cupboard.
[speaker003:] You say you don't get any trouble on
[speaker002:] No no. See it's all nailed up now. I opened it one morning, there was somebody looking at me.
[speaker003:] You were saying about blues at er night. Is that weekends is it?
[speaker002:] Er you get what what you call a small blues during the week, but Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, you can expect er large blues.
[speaker003:] Is that on the flats or is it the.
[speaker002:] Well you got one on the, which has got nothing to do with us. Then you've got one on Walk. Let's have a look round here, check this. Yeah. So what they're doing now, is sealing the walkways off. It's a bit of a So you can't get through. It's a bit of a pain in the neck, cos we can't walk round you see.
[speaker003:] the whole walk's been sealed off?
[speaker002:] Yeah the whole walkway's been sealed off.
[speaker003:] Which one's that, is that the?
[speaker002:] It's erm d der I think. And after fourteen months up here I can still get lost. Yeah. and whereas before we could walk round in a on a circular route, Yeah that's Walk.
[speaker003:] So you have to you're just doubling back on yourselves.
[speaker002:] Yeah just d doubling back on ourselves.... But erm er when the W Winter comes on, the wind starts whistling round this place, it er cuts into your ears a bit. You can feel the cold.
[speaker003:] You not have any any trouble with vagrants on these empties?
[speaker002:] Well we've had one or two, as I say, I found a chap in number fifteen, the outhouse, I just asked him to move on. Er next night so I frightened him, I was gonna nail it up while he was inside, and he [LAUGHTER] soon come out [].
[speaker003:] You've not had anybody tear the tin down and
[speaker002:] No well not as far we've we've found. Er nobody tearing the tin down.. You'd you'd probably come in the daytime, and you'd find some of the tin's been ripped off a bit, you might find a find a corner's been ripped off. And then you know, when you check up on it, the following day, you probably find the council's been back in and forgot to secure it, so we've got s a nail and some nails and a hammer, and we'll er just re-secure it and let the the council know in the morning. Walk, completely empty.
[speaker003:] It's all this one side of the flats isn't it?
[speaker002:] Yes it's all this side, er phase er one, two and three.
[speaker003:] How do you find it on the parts that are still populated, I mean the
[speaker002:] Well they're more or less no different to what we're walking down here now. You might see somebody scurrying about later at night or in the morning.
[speaker003:] It's not very lively?
[speaker002:] No.
[speaker003:] No.
[speaker002:] Creeping off to work.... It's the main problem we get to face in the daytime now, is the windows being smashed. And obviously you can er ascertain that er, when more windows get smashed, the locals are gonna start complaining to the council, that it looks a bit of an eyesore, even though it's an eyesore now, it'll be a greater eyes eyesore then. But we're not on the flats in the daytime,
[speaker003:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] So there's nothing we can do about it.
[speaker003:] And most of that goes on in the daytime
[speaker002:] Mm.
[speaker003:] does it? And this is Walk.
[speaker002:] Walk yeah. Number six is the loos. You can walk down here, don't walk down here at nighttime if it's er if it's chock-a-block. Alright then. The lady lives over the blues must have a set of earphones somewhere. And she's got three kiddies so she moves out at nighttime. Yeah we don't erm antagonize them. If we see there's quite a few on the walkways, and if we know that they're outsiders then we'll we'll turn round and we'll walk back the other way. It's better to walk b back, and look at them for a d you know, from afar, than
[speaker003:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] try and push your way through. On to.
[speaker003:] There's a cupboard there that's been ripped open, I mean is that just part of the vandalism that goes on?
[speaker002:] Well no, knowing our it's probably the er electricity board's come along, to read the meter, somebody's put a screw in it, and they've got a crowbar and just opened it up. That's not vandalism....
[speaker003:] quite a lot of flights around.
[speaker002:] Oh yes. Our biggest, biggest er threat when we first come up here, was the dog muck which was on the ground. I think we've walked past the one that's been set on fire. I dunno. You you walk round the flats, and you know, you walk round them for fourteen months, and all of a sudden you have to stop and think where you are. play area. Er round about Christmas last year, this flat down here, bottom of, they had all their present in there. Ready for the Christmas party, and some er some fiend broke in an nicked all the presents. Obviously it was an inside job, cos nobody else knew the presents were there.
[speaker003:] Did they get them back?
[speaker002:] No no. There was a lot of toys and that appeared on the flats all of a sudden.
[speaker003:] Was that over night that?
[speaker002:] In daytime, in the daytime. Anything happens on the flats, it'll happen in the daytime. Cos they know they know that we're not here. Let's have a look along, along. Come right on the ramp you see, we can look on the back of these flats.
[speaker003:] Yeah. Right. What walks this? Is this
[speaker002:] Er I think.
[speaker003:] Have you had much vandalism on the play centre stuff that
[speaker002:] No not not mu much as what you can call vandalism, you know people spraying paint on the tinned up windows and that. look down the back here, see if there's anything. The boy's club, No. Nothing to do with us. Of course we can see the back of the flats over on and er wrong on and. You've got to look at them from different angles, see if there's any smoke bellowing out from anywhere, or somebody's hanging out of a window.
[speaker003:] You were saying about you had a a bomb scare once, what walk was that on?
[speaker002:] That was on.
[speaker003:] What actually happened there?
[speaker002:] Well I don't know really. All I know is the reports which the lads filed. Er a chap... er reported to our lads that there was a suspicious, something suspicious wired up to his back door. Er they went, had a look, took the appropriate action and er phoned the police and handed it over to the police. Er which in turn the police brought the bomb disposal out. And they dealt with it.
[speaker003:] It was actually a fake wasn't it.
[speaker002:] Yeah it was they call erm a hoax. A hoax er improvised explosive device. if we'd kicked it, something like that. They the the leads carried out the proper procedure, what's laid down for them. And they did quite well. The police praised them. I think even when the police turned up, they hadn't got a clue what to do with it so, it was a good training training day from This leads down down onto the stairwell. Terrace down there, and Walk there.
[speaker003:] Do you actually go down the stairwell?
[speaker002:] Oh yeah, we go down the stairwells. Drop onto the walk level at night time.
[speaker003:] You say it gets a bit busier about two o'clock.
[speaker002:] Yeah we get the people going from over to the. There's a couple up here at number twenty, a deaf and dumb couple. We were walking round here about three o'clock one morning, there was water pouring all out the the seams of the concrete. Went upstairs and there was water pouring out the electrics. Tried the alarm, their alarm like, obviously they hadn't switched it on. So we had to get the bobbies down to kick the door in, and you can imagine at three o'clock in the morning, some some deaf and dumb couple, there's this big coloured bobby le leaning over and waking them up. The first thing they do is switch the bloody lights on. There was about four inches of water inside. All we heard was one scream for a bobby like [LAUGHTER] you know [], and they turned the lights on. [LAUGHTER]
[speaker003:] Had all the pipes burst?
[speaker002:] Well what had happened apparently, the er ballcock inside the system had stuck. And the er overflow wasn't working properly.
[speaker003:] Do you get much trouble like that with water and stuff.
[speaker002:] Oh we we deal we deal with all sorts on here. Er water, lights, for any you know the light bulb goes, first thing they do they come running to us, you know, me lights are out. Well, Right love we'll inform you know we just phone up and let them know what's happened.
[speaker003:] This all goes on the report in the morning.
[speaker002:] Yeah it all goes on the report in the morning. Flat over on, bottom left, that's where we had the arson attack. It's all tinned up now. And as I as I told you before, we was on the main concourse, heard the glass smashed, we come down a stairwell on, come round the back, saw the two, or saw two persons in the back garden, asked them what they were doing buy which time the the curtain went up in smoke, well up in flames. I dealt with the fire while the other sergeant followed them back to. And the police come and we handed everything over to them.
[speaker003:] The flat was alright then?
[speaker002:] Yes well we save, we possibly saved that time, most of was was completely er occupied, so if we hadn't have seen the fire, there could have been forty lives or forty families at risk there. I think it's anyway, I keep forgetting where we are. You can imagine
[speaker003:] Yeah I think that is.
[speaker002:] Yeah you can s you can imagine walking round here for fourteen months, and then one w one back of one walkway looks like another walkway.
[speaker003:] Have you had any trouble, I mean, I mean I don't know if you've seen erm but does to a deterrent and there's trouble with motorbikes on the walks, have you found any trouble with peo
[speaker002:] Yeah you you you get one or two people with the motorbikes. All we do there again is, we'll tell them to stop, if they don't stop we'll get on the on the the phone to the polices and let them deal with it.
[speaker003:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] We got erm no authority to
[speaker001:] Hiya.
[speaker002:] stop them. Alright then?
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] And just get the registration number,pho phone it through to the police and let them deal with it.
[speaker003:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] down on to I think. Yeah I can see it's cos I can see name plate.
[speaker003:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Alright. and, two out on a limb. Alright then?
[speaker001:] she's gone.
[speaker002:] Has she gone has she
[speaker001:] Went this morning.
[speaker002:] this morning.
[speaker001:] Yeah you'll miss her.
[speaker002:] Aye. Got nobody to talk to down here. I've got no spy in the corner. Yeah Beatrice has moved out.
[speaker003:] Is this an old lady
[speaker002:] Yes we got her moved out a little bit earlier. She she was a sitting. She didn't know what she was tit entitled to claim for. So when we got the council's bloke to have a word with her, went to saw he a fortnight ago, and she's moved today. Last time I seen he on Monday, she was happy as punch she was going.
[speaker003:] Have you had any break-ins or anything like that recently? been very quiet.
[speaker002:] It's been very quiet with break-ins. We've had one on. Let's just check... No it's been quiet on break-ins at the moment. Probably er you know people's probably got a bit of money so they don't need to break in to anybody. one on Walk. But that was a bit dubious. See there again we can come on here, and we can look down the back of. There again make sure nobody hanging out of a window or somebody doing summat daft, walking a to along top of roofs.
[speaker003:] Have you ever caught anybody on the roofs.
[speaker002:] Yeah we've seen one or two up there, but all we do is to tell them er to get down. If they want to to fall off that that's their problem. Er y you know especially if if if they're living in the flat, you know above. Er we've got authority to pull them off.
[speaker003:] Is it you were telling me about you you you caught kids sniffing methane was it?
[speaker002:] Yes that was over on walk. We passed that way back. Yeah there was about three kids three kids in a in one of these cupboards, and they were sniffing butane gas. I phoned up the bobbies, told them about it, and the bobbies the isn't a lot much they could do. They've come down and give the lads tell the lads off. But by time they come down, the lads had gone you see so. [LAUGHTER] Waste of time.
[speaker003:] Obviously that had a fire risk to it as well.
[speaker002:] Well it does I mean with these light being fluorescent, they give off a small charge, when the you know when the lights come on. You've only got to have the gas build up and bang. That's what happened apparently at, about a fortnight afterwards. Er couple couple of lads, sniffing butane, and somebody struck a match. [LAUGHTER] And they went bang. We went a lot quicker than what we normally walk round in. We normally take it a bit slower. I've walked down Shall we go down onto s ground floor. like this.... Right down on to Street now. St street level. between the flats and come out the other end.
[speaker003:] I mean what what sort of things happen down on the ground ground level?
[speaker002:] Oh you might get er an abandoned vehicle. see a vehicle that you you recognize is not off the patch, they'll they'll radio it through to to the base, to our base. Lads' ll get on phone and the bobbies' ll stick it through computer. computer.
[speaker003:] Do you get many abandoned cars?
[speaker002:] One or two, we used to we had one or two when we first came up here. But it's all quiet now. [recording ends]