POLICE are urging parents to remain vigilant after the shock discovery of drugs at a children’s play area.

A small bag of white powder – believed to be cocaine – was found by the children’s play area outside the front of shops on Shaw Road on the Templars Estate, near to the New Rickstones Academy school.

The drugs were found by the Templars Community Association chairman who was conducting a regular walk around the estate.

The discovery was reported to Essex Police and Witham Special Sgt Simon Jessie.

Sgt Jessie urged parents and children to be on their guard.

He said: “I want parents and children to remain vigilant in the play areas and report anything suspicious they find to the police.”

Figures released by Police.UK show that up to November 2021, there were 267 anti-social behaviour incidents reported to Essex Police in 2021 in the Witham North area.

Witham North is the policing area which contains Shaw Road.

That is down on the total figure recorded throughout 2020 when 322 incidents were reported.

It comes as anti-social behaviour has fallen by almost a quarter across the county during 2021.

Essex Police recorded 40,965 incidents between January 1 and December 21 in 2021, a drop of 23.6 per cent compared to the previous 12 months.

In Braintree, police community support officer Lorraine Keating is on the community police team, which works to solve anti-social problems by using local knowledge and connections.

She said: “Recently, we had an issue in Braintree town centre with local drug-takers hanging around.

“I found out where they were getting their methadone prescriptions from.

“Normally they get their prescriptions daily but, because of the pandemic, they’d been given a week’s worth at a time.

“This was causing a lot of problems, so I arranged with the pharmacy to start issuing them with daily prescriptions again.”

She keeps in regular contact with shop managers, businesses and head teachers so that if a particular issue is identified it can be dealt with swiftly.

n Residents are urged to report anything suspicious to Essex Police online at essex.police.uk.