BRIDGWATER Town Council has set up a series of police forum meetings this year to allow concerns to be raised with councillors and officers. 

The forums were introduced at the start of the year, and the first two have been held at Bridgwater Town Hall.

They allow members of the public and ward councillors to discuss concerns with the police and help the council set its priorities. 

Town council leader Brian Smedley said: “We have now had two police forums involving senior police officers along with PCSOs and the new town wardens, so we have a great basis for understanding and setting and reviewing ongoing priorities.

“On top of this our police liaison team – myself, Cllr Liz Marsh and Cllr Tim Mander – also attended a separate meeting this week with Avon & Somerset PCC Mark Shelford and further raised our concerns there.”

Bridgwater Mercury: Town Council Leader Cllr Brian Smedley raises issues with the PoliceTown Council Leader Cllr Brian Smedley raises issues with the Police (Image: Bridgwater Westover Web)

Topics raised at the meetings include “the spate of shop windows being broken”. 

Cllr Smedley continued: “The town wardens would liaise with shopkeepers to report these as soon as they happened and via the online portal which is a much quicker route than telephoning.” 

Concerns were also raised about “potential instances of ‘hate crime’ in the area”.

“We were told that statistics showed that in the past 12 months there have been 90 reports, 55 of which have been in the town centre, but the categories have been split under, violence, criminal damage, graffiti and anti-social behaviour,” said Cllr Smedley.

 

Cllr Mick Lerry raised issues about anti-social behaviour in the town centre, the night-time economy and related public safety issues.

In January, the police ran a  ‘night-time economy operation’. The forum heard that, if people who are out at night see officers in force, it “sets the tone for the evening and there are less incidents”.

Bridgwater Mercury: Brian Smedley discusses how Police can make more of a regular local presence through the Counties new LCN system.Brian Smedley discusses how Police can make more of a regular local presence through the Counties new LCN system. (Image: Bridgwater Westover Web)

The police and its partner agencies will hold an event focusing on women's and girls' safety in Bridgwater town centre on March 31.

The event will be held on a MAVIS (Multi-Agency Vehicle In Service) bus, which will be parked at The Cornhill between 6pm and 10pm.