New recruits boost for Winchester Street Pastors (From Hampshire Chronicle)
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New recruits boost for Winchester Street Pastors
7:10am Friday 3rd February 2012 in Winchester
Scheme coordinator Mark Hibbert-Hingston, far right, with the new street pastor recruits
THEY are keen to do their bit to help make Winchester’s streets a safer place after dark.
Twenty new volunteers have signed up to be Winchester Street Pastors, which will enable the scheme to be expanded to cover Thursday nights.
For the past seven months pastors have been patrolling the city on Friday and Saturday nights, offering help and advice to anyone in distress.
Mark Hibbert-Hingston, coordinator of the pastors, said running pastor teams on Thursdays would help calm one of the busiest nights of the week.
He said: “Thursdays would make a significant difference. From talking to door staff and police, they want us out on Thursdays because although there might not be much crime, there are a lot of students out.”
Mr Hibbert-Hingston added the pastors were starting to become part of the furniture in the Winchester community, and had been well-received.
He said: “The comments we get from the people in the street are so positive. There’s a feeling building up from people that we have either helped them or helped someone they know.
“People tell us the level of aggression at night has gone down too since the street pastors arrived.”
The new recruits are currently in training along with their counterparts in Southampton, and will start patrolling next month, with Thursday shifts planned to start in the city in April.
