Protection order 'another tool' to help tackle antisocial behaviour in Godalming and Farncombe

By The Editor

16th Mar 2021 | Local News

Farncombe Station has been a hotspot for bad behaviour.
Farncombe Station has been a hotspot for bad behaviour.

Surrey Police approached Waverley Borough Council with the idea of imposing a new legal order in an attempt to "get on top of" antisocial behaviour in Godalming and Farncombe.

Waverley Sergeant Clare Sutherland told last night's (Monday's) meeting of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny committee that police wanted the extra powers that would come with a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) to deal with troublemakers.

She said low-level antisocial behaviour had been a problem in Farncombe and Godalming for the last two or three years.

She added: "We have done all we can to get on top of it. We have used dispersal orders and criminal behaviour orders. As we are looking at coming back out of lockdown, in order to try and not go back into that area of antisocial behaviour, we have approached the council."

She said that in the 'last few years' Godalming and Farncombe had seen 246 incidents of antisocial behaviour, a term which covers a range of offences from a litter bin being toppled over in a park to youths being noisy or minor criminal offences.

She said plans to set up a Farncombe Community team to patrol the streets, engage with young people and direct them towards more productive activities had stalled due to the first lockdown.

"I genuinely believe that with the PSPO and the Farncombe Community Team running in tandem that will probably decrease to almost non-existent the issues that have been going on in Farncombe and Godalming," she said.

Less in lockdown.

Binscombe councillor Paul Rivers said that the lockdowns had reduced the impact of anti-social behaviour. "One expects that when lockdown is released this may well creep up," he said. "Hopefully the Farncombe Community Team will be up and running to work with the police." Sgt Sutherland said the biggest issue was the 'public perception around antisocial behaviour'. "Although the figures around antisocial behaviour have gone down, as far as the public is concerned, things are reported on social media, not necessarily to the police, and all the people on that social media like to add their fivepence worth, and it gets blown out of all proportion," she said. "A lot of people think there is a lot of antisocial behaviour going on. There isn't. People will see litter around a bench and will think it's a youth, but it isn't." "Most people going about their normal business will not be affected by the PSPO. It's just another thing in our toolbox that we can use."

Displacement.

Milford councillor Maxine Gale said she "sympathised" with Godalming and Farncombe. "The thing that bothers my ward is displacement," she said. "There are only a couple of stops down the railway line to Milford and Witley. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that these people will want to find somewhere else to hang out." And she said that for the "past eight or nine years" Witley Parish Council had paid for security guards to patrol its buildings and grounds to prevent antisocial behaviour. "We don't want to see that come our way," she added. Sgt Sutherland said there had been 60 reported incidents of antisocial behaviour in Milford, Witley, Dunsfold and Haslemere over the last couple of years, which ranged from neighbourhood disputes to youths gathering. It was difficult to work out where youngsters had come from, she said, as people tended to report them as 'local' youths. Help from BTP.

She said working in partnership with the British Transport Police had helped contain issues in Farncombe before lockdown. Problems had been reported right along the line from Farncombe towards Haslemere, and sometimes even into Hampshire.

"The rail staff and their unions were beginning to start conversations along the lines that 'we're not going to stop here,'" she said. As a result of those concerns British Transport Police officers had started patrolling the area around Farncombe and Godalming stations as well as travelling on the trains in order to contain the bad behaviour.

Sgt Sutherland said that although the order would provide officers with an extra tool to deal with the issue, "We can't say what the impact of the PSPO will be because we have never done it before."

The issue will be discussed again at tonight's meeting of Waverley's Community and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which starts at 7pm and will be livestreamed on YouTube.

A public consultation on the proposed PSPO will run until April 2nd. More details of the proposed order can be found on the Waverley website.

     

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