On Friday 28th July MP for Horsham, Jeremy Quin, held two meetings in the town to discuss concerns around anti-social behaviour.
The first meeting was held at Mr Quin’s constituency office in Horsham and was attended by Katy Bourne, the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, District Commander Sarah Leadbeatter, Neighbourhood Police Team Inspector Neil Durkan, representatives from Horsham District Council and representatives from the local licensees. This was followed by a meeting with local residents who were keen to raise specific issues about crime and anti-social behaviour in the Town centre and hear from the Police about their focussed approach to addressing it.
Mr Quin said: “Earlier in the year we got local publicans together with the Police and HDC on how we can reverse what was a concerning rise of wholly unacceptable behaviour in the town centre. Although the problems are not fully resolved good progress has been made: the Police presence has been significantly stepped up, intelligence has improved and dispersal orders used. Rapid communications between local businesses and the Police are being made easier through the introduction of a new purposely designed system and Publicans are very pleased with the approach being taken by Horsham’s new Neighbourhood Police team Inspector.
“However there is still a lot of work to do and I was delighted to hear that Inspector Durkan has created a dedicated Horsham Town policing team. The Horsham Town Team consists of a sergeant, two police constables and six PCSOs who will work alongside other police colleagues but will be identified as members of the team and will become a regular (and very welcome) sight to local residents, providing a real focus to policing in the Town.”
Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne said: “Residents and business staff should not have to live in fear and should absolutely be able to enjoy their town. I’m delighted to say that Horsham will be the next area where we’re launching ‘Disc’ – an advanced online information-sharing system to help reduce low-level crime and anti-social behaviour.
“My previous visit with Mr Quin in Horsham was over 5 months ago so it was good to see that improvements and progress are being made and these are being noticed by both residents and businesses.”