'Lack' of police presence in Midhurst comes under scrutiny

At a town council meeting last night (Tuesday February 17), councillors heard a report from cllr Laura Jeffries who had attended a police and crime reduction meeting the previous month.

A big issue, according to cllr Jeffries, is anti-social behaviour.

She said: “A big issue is anti-social behaviour in various car parks generally youths with cars and there is also concern expressed by people at that meeting that this seems to be hand-in-hand with the use of nitrous oxide canisters because there is quite a lot of debris around the parks indicating that there is some misuse of those substances.

“That was raised with the police officers.”

The amount of crime reported in the town from December to mid-January was 28 offences.

The majority being ‘minor’ residential burglaries to outhouses.

The issue was raised with the officers at the meeting about the amount of time being spent in Midhurst, cllr Jeffries said.

She said: "We want the physical presence down here.

“We appreciate it should be directed at appropriate times because it’s pointless controlling where there’s no issue so that seems to be an ongoing concern and they got quite defensive about it, but anyway, those issues have been raised."

Cllr David Coote said: “I just wanted to say that the community police officer is visiting schools and making contact with young people.

“Is he going into youth clubs or is he making contact because certainly that was the advantage when previously we have had this — that link with young people and getting to know them and really knowing what is happening.”

Cllr Mark Purves said positivity was needed but there should be a conversation with police about increasing visibility in the town.

He said: “We are not getting the presence, we are not getting the interaction from the police that we would want and therefore I think we should be doing that."

Cllr Gordon McAra said: “I haven’t seen this guy here or around the town and I’m disappointed. Really I’m quite disappointed.”

It was then agreed a police representative would be invited to attend a meeting as has been done in the past.