New police hub for Bideford

Reporting crime made easier

Efforts to control anti-social behaviour in Bideford with a new police base in the town centre have been welcomed by councillors.

The force announced is to trial a ‘community engagement hub’ at Jubilee Square at The Quay, where the highest number of incidents were reported last year.

It follows funding for street marshals from Devon and Cornwall police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez to increase a visible uniformed presence around the town’s key locations.

Torridge District Council has been campaigning for more police on the streets for some time, particularly after hearing of 345 reported incidents of anti-social behaviour last year.

One councillor called the yearly crime report “awful reading”.

Calls to the police were mainly about disturbances at The Quay, the High Street and Mill Road.

Police said, however, that a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) introduced in 2010 that restricts drinking in the town centre had had an effect, with anti-social behaviour captured on CCTV reducing by more than half since then and more than 31 dispersal notices issued.

The PSPO was extended recently to include the livestock market.

Officers will now be more accessible to the public at the new hub, one of two for Torridge. The second is in Westward Ho! where crime increases during the summer months.

Local neighbourhood police officers will work from the hubs, closer to potential incidentsand they will be joined in Bideford by the community safety team from Torridge District Council.

Council member for community safety Cllr Philip Hackett (Ind, Broadheath) is pleased the hubs are being established. “I’m sure it will make a difference. I warmly welcome it,” he said.

“Anti-social behaviour has been a major concern for our residents and to have officers on the ground talking to the public will be beneficial. We need to outsmart the criminals and this together with the street marshals should have some impact.”

He said it had taken a long time to get the street marshals back in Bideford, after the scheme was first introduced following covid lockdowns.

Cllr Hackett has long been an advocate of street marshals and as a member of the Devon and Cornwall police and crime panel has been lobbying the police and crime commissioner for funding.

“North Devon gets overlooked, but whereas Barnstaple was able to continue with the street marshals, they were withdrawn from Bideford and I could not see the reason why as they do a great job of deterring crime.”

Cllr Philip Pennington (Non aligned, Monkford and Putford) who said last year that he didn’t go into Bideford after 6pm because of anti-social behaviour, blamed the police’s troubled 101 service for causing much dissatisfaction in Bideford because people found it hard to report crime.

“It’s been frustrating, because although much of the disruption and behaviour is not an emergency, it does make people feel uneasy and we just kept hearing from the police that crime was down and this is the safest place to live in the country.”

Bideford neighbourhood team leader, Sgt Glyn Clark said: “These community engagement hubs are a great asset for officers to use and allow us to get closer to the public, be more accessible and be on hand to deal with incidents and queries.

“These bases are possible thanks to our close working partnership with Torridge District Council. Officers on foot patrol can offer a more visible presence in the two towns and help reassure residents and shoppers.

“The public tell us they want us to be more visible in the community and this helps us to fulfil that. We also hope that being close to the centre of things may also help prevent crime. We are treating the new hubs as a trial run pilot project to see how they are received and hope to use them more in the future.”

Latest crime statistics show that in June 2024, sexual and violent offences in Bideford West and Bideford East the Water outnumbered anti-social behaviour by 40 per cent, with 68 and 49 crimes reported respectively.