Bad behaviour is top concern

Anti-social behaviour was highlighted as the biggest problem in Southwell by residents who met the town’s policing team on Saturday.

From 10am to about 3pm, the Safer Neighbour Team, made up of Pc Tony Hayes and community support officers Mark Brandreth and Martin Derbyshire, were on hand to talk to shoppers in Southwell market.

As well as Southwell, the team covers Bleasby, Sutton-on-Trent, North and South Muskham and Fiskerton.

They were joined by the crime prevention officer for Newark and Sherwood, Mr Trevor Timpson.

The officers gave out leaflets giving crime prevention advice, as well as shed alarms, ultra-violet pens to mark property, personal attack alarms and stickers for children.

The aim was to allow residents to get to know their policing team and ask questions.

Mr Brandreth said: “It is good for people to know our faces. If they have got a problem we are quite happy to talk to them and try and help.”

He said anti-social behaviour was the main concern and it was something they were tackling.

“On Friday nights we take children home if they are under a certain age and caught with alcohol,” he said.

“We go to see their parents and a lot of the time they don’t realise that they are out drinking.”

Results from previous surveys by the team were on display.

The results again showed anti-social behaviour as the main priority, followed by criminal damage and, thirdly, litter and dog fouling.

Stall visitor Mrs Joan Martin, of Kirklington Road, said: “It is a great idea to show their presence because police seem to be very few and far between these days.

“You don’t really see them very often but I have noticed that they do walk around the streets in Southwell.

“It is reassuring for some people to see that the police are around.”

She did not think anti-social behaviour was worse in Southwell than in other places.

“It is upsetting, it is just buildings and gardens that get damaged,” she said.