Crime in Diss

General Chat

Crime in Diss

wilstonegreen 17/11/2009, 5:25 PM

Recently The Diss Express reported on a wave of crime in the local area. Incidents which included theft from shops, damage to cars and buglaries. These are not isolated incidents as crime in Diss has been prolific for the last few years.

Before; it was due to a few undesirable 'Dingle like' families and the occasional random individual. Then the crimes were mostly things like poaching and domestic disturbances; one cousin sleeping with anthers cousins sister and the like. So what is the reason for the increase?

Five years ago Solo Housing Association opened Victoria House; a hostel on Victoria Road. They did this even though there was already a hostel in Diss which; was managed by St Matthews Housing. Originally both hostels gave priority to the homeless and those with mental health issues. However; four years ago the Government changed the way that it funded such establishments. Now it is a case of needs, the higher the needs of the Service User the more funding from the state. Being aware of this; hostels now generally only take in offenders and drug users who are considered to have the highest needs. Then they charge the state ridiculous amounts of money to support them, the provision of this support is dubious to say the least.

On average each Service User will stay at a hostel for a minimum of six months and will then be housed by the local authority. This may ruffle a few readers’ feathers because we are all aware that there are working families out there who have to wait up to ten years for affordable accommodation from the local authority. However; that is an issue for another day.

So let’s do the math! Victoria House is a six bed hostel and I understand that the St Matthews project is a 14 bedroom accommodation. This means that there are 20 residents moving on from both hostels every six months, that’s 40 each year and that makes 200 over five years; all with criminal convictions, many with drug dependency issues and all resettled into the local area.

Now I am not blaming these organisations for the increase in crime in Diss. Nor am I blaming any individuals who have moved on from either hostel. I am merely making you all aware that there are 200 drug dependent re-offenders being settled in and around Diss every five years. You can make your own assumptions.

Bukowski Is Dead

Re: Crime in Diss

townie 10/12/2009, 7:57 PM
what a load of old tosh not all of the people you refer to are drug dependent re-offenders most are just young people who have fallen on hard times and need a hand including thosr who come out of childrens homes BEFORE they enter a life of crime its interesting that they come from all walks of life from working to upper class backgrounds and once they go into this type of setup most go on to lead normal lives please get your facts right before you post such bigoted rubbish

Re: Crime in Diss

NotFromTheseParts 16/02/2010, 2:03 PM

I have to agree with Townie about the message which began this thread.

I can't help wondering if some of the rise crime may be due to months/years of increasing financial hardship and the very limited availability of work in Diss? Perhaps not a very satisfying answer but I should think it is contributing to the problem.