Extra police will soon be patrolling the streets of Knighton during the early hours on weekends in a bid to crackdown on increasing amounts of vandalism.
An extra double crew patrol car will be directed to the area on Friday and Saturday nights, with the officers instructed to walk the streets and answer calls.
A change in the police rota system will free up extra staff for the weekends, when most of the vandalism problems tend to occur, town councillors have been told. But the extra cops will not be available for a couple of weeks because of commitments such as the Brecon Jazz Festival.
Sergeant Gareth Wheatman promised members of Knighton Town Council that the extra police would be coming to town and he said he would contact the inspector immediately to ensure it.
He said half the 8pm-4am shift would be assigned to the town so there would be cover between 9pm and midnight.
Two councillors, Roger Bright and Trevor Johnson, had complained about the lack of a police presence in the town against a backdrop of ever increasing vandalism.
Knighton Community Centre is regularly hit by vandals, cars have been damaged in the town, public toilets have been attacked, just recently wine and champagne were stolen just before a wedding party was due to take place and play mats at the Offa’s Dyke Park have been set alight.
Councillor Bright said he had received a lot of complaints from residents about the lack of police officers. “They want to know what they are paying their rates for. The thing we want is to know what is the possibility of having a police presence on the weekends between 9pm and 12am,” he asked.
Sergeant Wheatman said it was true that the numbers of police in Knighton and Presteigne had fallen, but not as much as they had in other towns.
“It’s not going to get any better, there is already a freeze on recruiting,” he said. “The round that was due in September is not happening and the force has to save £34 million over the next few years.”
He said he was confident he could get support for the extra police for the weekends, but warned they would have a big area to cover.
Councillor Johnson asked if a Police Community Support officer without the power of arrest could do the office work to free up police officers who could arrest to patrol the town.
But Sergeant Wheatman said it was not possible because forms had to be filled in by a police officer to a certain standard.
PCSO Rob Smith said he was still new to the role and was still building up contacts, but he said he had been walking around the towns and that would increase in the future.
Councillor Sarah Scotford asked if it would be possible to ban the drinking of alcohol at Offa’s Dyke Park because she said youngsters were drinking there and causing problems.
Sergeant Wheatman said Llandrindod Wells was still the only town in Powys with such a ban in place on the greens in the town, but it had taken a lot of work and time to get the order.
He suggested the town council write to Powys County Council to find out more. Sergeant Wheatman also encouraged councillors to write to police headquarters to ask for the extra officers to back up his efforts.
Councillor David And-rews said he believed a lot of people were hesitant to call the police, thinking if they saw an incident that it was too trivial or that someone else would do it.
But the Mayor, Councillor Ken Harris, said if people did not report incidents it would work against the council asking for extra police officers in the town.