Antisocial behaviour in Bishop's Waltham down despite cuts, say police (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Antisocial behaviour in Bishop's Waltham down despite cuts, say police

1:00pm Sunday 10th March 2013 in News

POLICE say antisocial behaviour (ASB) in Bishop’s Waltham is down by 70 per cent, despite challenging cut-backs.

Local beat bobby, PC Simon Paulls, said that 2012 saw a marked decrease in various crimes when compared to the preceding year.

Reduced resources include the closure of the police station’s front office and the decision to leave a police community support officer position empty.

“It has been a very busy year and we’ve had quite a few changes. The office closed due to cut backs and we no longer take any lost property at the station as we have no means of storing it”, he said.

He told residents at Bishop’s Waltham’s annual parish meeting that there were 165 fewer reported incidents of ASB since last year’s meeting.

He said rowdy behaviour from teenagers at a local bus stop had been an issue, but that the establishment of the youth club had greatly reduced this problem.

PC Paulls also reported that there was a 56 per cent drop in burglaries, or 18 less incidents year on year, and that road traffic accidents were down 16 per cent.

However, some residents were not satisfied by the figures.

Dorothy Quiney, a former parish councillor, asked PC Paulls how many officers covered a Sunday evening shift for Droxford and Bishop’s Waltham and was informed three PCs was the norm.

“I am disgusted to hear that you were down to one police officer on one particular shift and I shall make sure that Simon Hayes (Hampshire’s police and crime commissioner) hears about it,” she said.