Doing it for the kids

Hello again,

Well I hope everyone had a good Bank Holiday - wasn't it wonderful weather. I was off from the Friday to the Monday, got plenty of gardening done and a barbecue each day. Hope that was not our summer!

Back to work, and school holidays means youth activities. On Tuesday PCSO Kelly Drodge assisted the neighbourhood wardens with an event at Newtown Youth Centre involving an art project. Then on Wednesday PCSOs Fiona Oates, Mark Reynolds, Kelly Drodge and Ed Wiggans and I took 20 of the Junior PCSOs down to the Streetwise project in Bournemouth, Dorset. We had to take two mini-buses and the Fire and Rescue Service kindly loaned us one with Alan Fryer to drive.

Streetwise is a really good project. Built in a warehouse on an industrial estate it’s a little village with two full size houses, a railway track, roads with working traffic lights, a park, police station and other stuff. The staff, all volunteers, lead the children around the scenarios - all with a safety message. We split the children into groups of four and did nine scenarios each. These include railway safety, fire, strangers, indeed anything can be made to fit. There is a smoke machine in the house and when that goes off, they get one of the children to make a 999 call where they get an operator and have to make the call real. The train is the front end of a real train, supplied by Virgin, with the train driver controls, and a video is played. One child is chosen to try to stop the train as soon as a child is seen running across the rail track - of course they cannot stop it in time. It took about two hours to get around and was really educational, I would certainly recommend if you have a youth group or similar. Indeed it is so real there that the emergency services use it for training. As you may recall the weather was awful on Wednesday, we had planned to take the children to the beach for a couple of hours, but due to the rain, popped down to Poole Quay for an ice-cream and back home. It was a really good day out.

Fiona also arranged a trip on Thursday, where she, Mark and Kelly took some more Junior PCSO to the Down to Earth farm project in Shirley. This time the weather was good and again the children had a really good time. Once we get the photos I will add some to the web page. That was followed on Thursday afternoon by the Safer Neighbourhood teams playing a 6 a-side game of football against some staff and clients from the Two Saints project in Newtown. The game ended about 12-11 to them I think. I went on as a sub and played the full hour - I am getting too old for this!

Looking forward to next week, we have a meeting on Monday to consider a Junior PCSO Conference in the summer to promote the scheme to other parts of the county. Since Sgt Andy Williams and I did our presentation in London a few weeks ago, I have been contacted by officers from Thames Valley Police and Sussex Police about setting up schemes.

There is also the Northam Tenants and Residents Association meeting. There will also be the Tesco Express police surgery in St Mary St 5.30 - 7.30 pm - pop along and see PCSO Fiona Oates.

Tuesday is the Golden Grove patch chat where we will discuss the issues relating to that area, and again discuss the St Marys community priorities. Wednesday evening I have been invited to the St Marys Tenants and Residents Committee meeting.

On thursday there is a meeting about some planned art work for the footbridge between Northam Road and the football stadium. However this may turn into a graffiti project - and if so, we as the police will not get involved in that. So far, PCSO Mark Reynolds has previously arranged for the bridge to be painted throughout, cleaned and have the Saints logo at one end. We will have to wait and see.

And finally on Saturday, PCSO Mark Reynolds and Kelly Drodge will be taking some Junior PCSOs up to the Enviro Day at the Bargate where we will have a stand.

Another full week and that does not include all the crime stuff that the PCs will be doing.

Finally I have lost a PC, as Simon Bradshaw has moved on the tactical cycle team. He has done really well for us and I wish him all the best for the future.

Speak to you next week

Cheers

Dick