Leave, Junior PCSOs and Halloween

Hello,

Well I was fortunate to have some leave from last Friday until Thursday. A very nice break down to North Devon where I did a bit more of the South West Coastal path, had a few cream teas and sampled some Devon Ale, and of course a pint or two of cloudy scrumpy. Back to work now though.

Thursday was a good day. We took 20 of the Junior PCSO to Fairthorne Manor YMCA activity centre for the day. It was really good and the children behaved themselves - well most of them. The weather held out and children completed a team challenge, obstacle course and some rock climbing. We took the 20 children with the best attendance at the schemes. We were accompanied by a film crew from CASS productions who are making a film about the Junior PCSO Schemes, funding has been supplied by Swaythling Housing who have supported the schemes and been involved from the very start in 2007. This was the third day of filming. On Tuesday they filmed, amongst other things, a group of Junior PCSOs visiting St Marys fire station and on Wednesday we had a series of activities that the juniors often do, to be shown on the film. We were also very lucky that the Chief Constable came down to see the schemes and was interviewed by some of the children. We are looking forward to reviewing the footage and making sure we get the right pieces in the final film.

We have been busy in St Mary St again. PC Jeanette Denton attended the St Mary's Traders Association meeting on Monday - no major issues raised for us. At the meeting she was able to mention the traffic enforcement we have been doing following complaints of speeding in the street. The initiative involves a group of officers stopping cars, advising the drivers about the speed limit in St Marys Street and identifying and dealing with any offences that are disclosed. Each operation lasted about 1hour. This is the third, and each time we end up with about 8/9 fixed penalty tickets, mainly for not wearing seat belts. This has gone down really well with residents and the traders and we will be continuing the operations.

On Monday we have the open police meeting at Northam. This will be in the Residents association office at 6pm. The idea is that we will gather the concerns of the community and identify the top three which we will then work on for the next few months. There will be two of these meetings a year. We will also have four meetings a year where residents and agencies will identify three community priorities and what we are all going to do to try to sort out the problems.

This weekend was Halloween and we’re now leading up to Bonfire night. Traditionally this is a busy time for the police, with lots of reports of anti-social behaviour. We are quite fortunate in that we do not suffer from too much juvenile nuisance, however we have allocated officers to patrols each evening, to respond to any calls and to intervene with any youngsters we see about. This should also give reassurance to the residents. We distributed plenty of the 'No trick or treat here please' posters to help those who don’t want to be disturbed by the youngsters.

Dick