Cosham High Street: Residents and traders react as Portsmouth shopping precinct is cordoned off after attack
Residents and traders have reacted to an incident which has seen a Portsmouth shopping street closed off
After a stretch of a Portsmouth shopping street was closed off by police overnight, residents and traders have revealed their worries after the incident.
A cordon has been installed in the area near the Crown Bingo and Social Club after a 33-year-old man from Portsmouth suffered a life-threatening head injury in a serious assault in the early hours of April 24. It’s led to some residents feeling uneasy about what happened, especially following the stabbing in daylight on March 12 near Cosham Railway Station.
Lynne Taylor, 71, of Cosham said: "You just don't feel safe any more. I don't go out in the evening.
“In the day you think you are safe but I wouldn't go out at night, you are so vulnerable. I'm even scared to get money out, you have to be so alert. It's sad when you can't live your life normally.”
A worker from a nearby shop, who asked to remain anonymous, added: “It’s all a bit close to home, we are all a bit scared to walk in our high street. It's not good for business either.”
Rajitha Manoharan, 45, works in the Premier store a couple of doors down from where the incident took place. The store is open 24 hours a day with anti-social behaviour affecting the business.
Rajitha said: “The morning is fine but in the evening sometimes you get kids making trouble and especially in the night time. It is bad. If the customer sees people outside shouting or drunk then people avoid us and don't want to come in.”
Toby Byrne, 41, was walking with his eight-year-old daughter when they were stopped by the cordon. With four children aged between eight and 19, he is really concerned by the rise in incidents in the area.
He said: “There seems to be a lot of it going on in Cosham at the moment. It does make you worried as I have kids and I don’t like letting them out as much at the moment as it is happening on our doorsteps. No one knows what is happening, it’s a bit worrying.
“I live down by the train station and we had the stabbing a few weeks ago near me and now something has happened here. I don’t like my kids going out at the minute. It’s not like when were growing up, we never had this problem as much, you could walk around the streets without worrying.”
Rick Hu, 50, has run Ushers Greengrocer on Cosham High Street for the past five years. Even in that time he has seen a huge change on the high street, from rising costs to a rise in anti-social behaviour.
He said: “With the road blocked, our business today is totally ruined. The change in the high street over the past few years has been a disaster, small independent businesses like us has been impacted so much, it has been hard for us to survive. The high street is getting worse and worse.
“Most the people on this road are older people, and if they don’t feel safe they won’t come here and it will impact my business so much.”
Jacqueline James, 85, travels into Cosham from Havant twice a week to visit Crown Bingo. With no time confirmed for when the street will re-open, this week may have proved to be a fruitless visit.
She said: “I don’t go out in the evening, it seems as though nothing is safe now. You do get these incidents in big cities that are heavily populated but it seems to be happening more and more. It is frightening, I’m 85 so I do have to watch my step and be very careful.”
Further south on Cosham High Street, Ian Ogilvie, 61, has been running charity shop Friends Fighting Cancer for around eight years. Anecdotally he believes there has been in increase in anti-social behaviour with a rise in shoplifting incidents on the northern side of the high street.
He believes the incident today, combined with other incidents such as the stabbing on March 12 have put some shoppers off. “It makes people more wary of coming into the area, especially with the one in March taking place in broad daylight,” Ian said “but it’s not generally that bad of an area compared to others in my opinion. We are only a little high street, everyone knows each other, there is a lot of good people in the area.”
The 33-year-old man assaulted this morning has been taken to Southampton General Hospital for treatment. An 18-year-old from Petersfield has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm with intent. He remains in police custody at this time with police continuing their enquiries to establish the full circumstances.