Tackling Shropshire yobs a big issue in police vote
Street pastors, better lighting and community policing in Shropshire towns were among measures to tackle anti-social behaviour suggested by candidates to become the next police and crime commissioner.
With just weeks to go until the public goes to the ballot box, all six candidates for the top West Mercia role descended upon Ludlow School for a hustings organised by the town's Churches Together group for a grilling by residents.
Topics under discussion ranged from how candidates would address poor police morale, government cuts to legal aid and whether party politics should play a role in policing at all. Five of the six candidates are backed by a political party.
John Campion
Conservative
He is a Wyre Forest councillor from Kidderminster with a background in business and the prison service.
Peter Jewell
UKIP
He is also has a background in business but is also a serving magistrate and tribunal judge. He lives in Redditch.
John Raine
Green Party
He is a professor at Birmingham University specialising in policing and criminal justice and also councillor from Malvern.
Margaret Rowley
Liberal Democrat
She is another councillor from Droiwich and also served as a senior manager in the NHS.
Barrie Sheldon
Independent
He is a former detective inspector from Telford who has served as deputy PCC under current PCC Bill Longmore since 2012.
Daniel Walton
Labour
Barrie Sheldon, current deputy police and crime commissionerand the only independent candidate was joined by Conservative John Campion, UKIP's Peter Jewell, Green John Raine, Lib Dem Margaret Rowley and Labour's Daniel Walton.
Multiple candidates stressed that Shropshire is a low-crime area, but their job was also to tackle fear of crime, which Robin Pote, chairman of Ludlow Town Centre Residents' Association, picked up on.
He said there were issues in Ludlow with anti-social drunken behaviour on routes through residential areas from the town's pubs, and also a problem with elderly people in the town not feeling safe to walk the streets at night. He asked what candidates would do to tackle one or the other.
Margaret Rowley said street pastors, volunteers out and about in the evenings to look out for revellers, had helped reduce drink-related anti-social behaviour in Worcester, and working with health services was also important.
John Raine said the role of commissioner was unique in being potentially able to help fund a "wider police family", including volunteer and victim-support services.
However, Peter Jewell said there needed to be better use of street lighting, without lights going out around midnight in areas where people were concerned. He said the courts had a part to play, too, with more judicial use of anti-social behaviour orders and action to tackle drugs and alcohol.
John Campion said there needed to be more visible neighbourhood policing, with officers in the community talking to members of the public.
He said even if it wasn't possible for police to give an immediate 999 response to every complaint, better community connections would mean officers would know where to go and who to talk to to follow it up.
Daniel Walton said reducing fear of crime was important but there genuinely had been and increase in incidents of anti-social behaviour in the force area in recent years, so it wasn't all imaginary.
Earlier he had stressed fighting for fairer funding for West Mercia Police was one of his priorities.
Barrie Sheldon said in his experience there were two issues – working together with the whole community and a "local policing agreement" for each area.
The PCC elections will take place on May 5.
