Wadebridge Community Publisher on Insight Patrol with Police

The Cornish Guardian recently reported on a radical shake-up in police resources that will see Wadebridge and Bodmin come under the same neighbourhood policing district as Newquay.

A single inspector will be in charge of officers in an area which also covers Padstow, Port Isaac and St Columb Major.

The Cornish Guardian reported that Wadebridge mayor Steve Knightley said he was concerned police resources would be put into Newquay at the expense of his town under the new system.

Under the new structure, police community support officers (PCSOs) will be the main point of contact.

A new response pool will be formed with officers sent to deal with incidents anywhere in Cornwall.

The new "policing partnerships" system has resulted from budget cuts in the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, with many sector inspectors forced into early retirement.

Mr Knightley said he had real concerns about the new neighbourhood policing structure and was worried about the future of Wadebridge's police station.

"Newquay will always get a higher demand for policing than Wadebridge, which has seen crime come down year on year, and one of my worries is that if we don't have adequate police cover here, crime could rise again.

"I also worry about what will happen to Wadebridge police station under this new system," he said.

I appreciate Mr Knightley's concerns. I recently contacted Devon and Cornwall Police requesting to take part in their 'insight patrol' initiative. On Saturday 2nd of April I will be going out on an 'insight patrol' with Police officers from Wadebridge station.

I will see first hand the issues that front line officers have to face on a Saturday night on the streets of Wadebridge. I'll publish the follow up story next week (all going well).

If you are on twitter you can keep up to date with my night out on patrol with Wadebridge Police by following @WadebridgePeeps from 7pm on Saturday 2nd April.

photo: Andrew Macdonald