The results are in for the Safer 6 campaign’s first week, which had a special focus on Rowley Regis.

The week was packed with events from road safety operations and school parking patrols to shop raids, community clean-ups and crime prevention sessions.

The Mayor of Sandwell Councillor Ahmadul Haque MBE officially launched this year’s Safer 6 campaign at Haden Cross Community Fire Station’s open day. Families flocked to the event, inspecting a fire engine, watching a chip pan fire demonstration, checking out an ambulance, police van and the Youth Bus and getting advice from a wide range of organisations.

A big success was trading standards officers and police seizing more than 150,000 illegal tobacco products along with four suspected bottles of counterfeit vodka with a retail value of more than £15,000. The raids were at four shops in Rowley Regis and West Bromwich. You can read more about this operation here.

The many activities in Rowley Regis during the week (which ran from 23 September to 1 October) included the following:

  • Police and council highways officers targeted irresponsible parking around primary schools across the town and promoted road safety to parents and children at schools and Springfield Children’s Centre. The week saw the launch at Burnt Tree Primary of a new digital road safety website, which is free for all Sandwell schools to use.
  • Police ran a traffic enforcement operation, checking 330 vehicles and dealing with 22 offences. These included drivers using mobile phones, seatbelts not being worn, no MOT, illegal window tints and illegal number plates. Police also seized an off-road bike being driven irresponsibly in Blackheath and seized and towed two untaxed cars.
  • Volunteers from Sandwell Crime Prevention Panel attended the fire station open day and held sessions at Blackheath’s Wilko and Sainsbury’s stores. Together with partners, they handed out 478 ‘no caller at the door’ cards, 224 purse/mobile phone security cords, 257 purse bells and more than 70 security whistles/torches.
  • Fire crews carried out 95 ‘safe and well’ visits, offering advice on everything from vehicle safety and smoke alarms to stopping smoking. They also gave firework and road safety talks to schoolchildren and held a roadside education day with the police and council at Waterfall Lane, advising people on child car seats and the dangers of seatbelts and using mobile phones while driving.
  • A major tidy up was held at Mousesweet Brook Nature Reserve by council neighbourhood services officers, councillors, PCSOs and volunteers as well as offenders doing unpaid Community Payback work. They cut back overgrown trees and bushes to clear paths at the reserve and reveal hidden ornamental sculptures.
  • Trading standards carried out alcohol test purchases at six shops in the area, with half selling to the underage volunteer. The shops have been warned and face action against their licence and/or prosecution if they fail again.

  • The Big Local project, Litterwatch and council neighbourhood officers held a clean-up with volunteers on the Grace Mary and Lion Farm estates, filling six skips.
  • Community Payback cleared overgrown bushes in Perry Park Road and tidied up an area by garages at Falcon Place, while the council’s estate maintenance team cleaned up the grounds of Oakham and Cradley Heath libraries.
  • A surgery was held at St Giles Court with the police, fire service, council and Black Country Women’s Aid giving advice. Police also held a surgery at St Michael’s CE High School and PCSOs chatted to children at junior schools.
Also during the week, council wardens lifted three abandoned and two burnt out vehicles from around Sandwell, and removed four untaxed vehicles, including two from Alma Street, Smethwick, in partnership with the police. The council's enforcement team helped to get fly-tipping cleared from Bearwood Road and is working with landlords and businesses in the area to tackle the problem.

Councillor Susan Eaves, Rowley Regis town lead member, said: "I would like to thank all the organisations, officers and volunteers for an excellent week of activities to help keep our community safe and clean, building on their day-to-day work together. What a fantastic start to this year's Safer 6 campaign."

The Safer 6 campaign runs for six weeks across Sandwell’s six towns, with partner organisations targeting their efforts and providing extra reassurance as the nights draw in. Each of the six towns has a focus week during the campaign.