The children quizzed by police for 45 minutes for playing in the street
POLICE questioned two young children and their mother for 45 minutes – after a neighbour called them to complain that they were playing in the street outside her house.
Four-year-old Tom Corden had been riding his go-kart while his six-year-old sister Zara Corden followed him on her scooter.
But their Sunday afternoon in the sunshine was interrupted after a disgruntled neighbour complained about noise outside her home.
It is understood that the neighbour, in her sixties, had contacted police on a previous occasion about the young children.
Their mother, Andree, 45, yesterday told of her anger that they had been talked to by uniformed officers simply for playing outdoors.
‘Just chatting and pootling about’
She added that Tom was now scared to go out to play because he felt he had done something wrong.
Mrs Corden, a marketing and events co-ordinator, said: ‘The police van arrived and one of the officers asked me if the children could play a little further down the street.
‘I said no because I wanted to keep an eye on them from the house. They were not being noisy or misbehaving, they were just being kids. Does this mean the police are going to turn up every time my kids and the kids in the street are outside playing?’
Derbyshire Police said they had been in the local area at the time of the call and were doing a safer neighbourhood round.
But Mrs Corden said that, rather than approaching the family, they should have left once they realised that the complaint concerned two children playing in the street. Mrs Corden, 45, lives with her children and husband, Matt Corden, 42, who owns a helicopter business, in the village of Belper, Derbyshire, in a £420,000 house.
She added: ‘Surely they have crimes to investigate rather than doing this?
‘What sort of world are we living in when children cannot play in the street on a sunny day without the police being called?’
The couple have lived in the area for ten years and Zara and Tom often play outside with friends. Mrs Corden said: ‘ They are all wellbehaved, respectful kids. They weren’t doing anything wrong, just chatting and pootling about.’
She added that she had been keeping an eye on the group and was alarmed when she saw a police van pull up.
She said: ‘It wasn’t nice for the children, for starters. We’ve always told them to respect the police, and that the police catch baddies, so they were pretty confused. They keep asking now about the time the police came.’ She described her children as ‘ timid’ and said that Zara, who received a glowing school report, is ‘ well behaved at all times’.
She said that the neighbour had never complained directly to her but had instantly called the police. She believed the woman may be upset by the fact that the fields behind her home have been replaced by the houses where the Corden family now live.
She added: ‘ Someone has said she may be annoyed there aren’t fields here any more, but that isn’t my fault. We moved here specifically because it is a quiet cul-desac and any children we had would be able to play out. It is a lovely friendly street.’
A spokesman for Derbyshire Police admitted the children were not causing any sort of anti-social behaviour and added: ‘We spoke to them and to parents in the area as Safer Neighbourhoods is all about getting to know the local community we serve and listening to any concerns they have.’