Armed police in Radford Street drama

Staffordshire is one of the safest counties in the country and Stone's crime rate (or lack of it) should be the envy of many towns this size. So it was with horror that I discovered that this morning Stone was the subject of a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie. Radford Street blocked off by three patrol car whilst a dozen or so police officers with machine guns arrested a man and then sped off at speed. A lot of very frightened and shocked on lookers were left wondering what on earth had been happening.

The terrorism arrests last week a few miles up the A34 in Newcastle-under-Lyme have brought home the reality that even here, in sleepy North Staffordshire, we are not immune from the events in the big wide world. Was this another terrorist related incident? Were the shoppers and visitors to the town being placed at risk?

Thankfully the answer is "No". It now transpires that the whole thing was a police training exercise. I think the police need to do a little more by way of explanation. There were some very frightened people in town today.