THE Holsworthy Neighbourhood Police Team joined St Peter’s Fair’s panier market with their Fire VW T5 driving simulator recently.

The public had the opportunity to test out their driving skills in a driving simulator. They were also able to have a chat with PCSO Emma Tomkies and PFCSO Mark James to gain some information about road and fire safety — as well as the usual activities, such as fingerprinting, property marking and offering Crime Prevention advice.

PFCSO James, who was part of the demonstration and in charge of the Fire VW T5 driving simulator, said: “Hopefully this is something we will be able to bring out a lot more over the summer months of events. This service has been made available in the past by the fire service but thanks to my recent training to become a fire operative as well as PCSO I can access the vehicle with no need of a third party fire service advocate, which helps make the simulator more available.

“If people would like us to visit an event with the driving simulator we are urging people to get in contact with us. We cannot guarantee we will be able to attend as the vehicle is subject to availability but we do already have plans to take it out to Holsworthy and Stratton Show later this year.”

The PCSOs were kept busy from 9am set up until 2.30pm when the display was closed.

PFCSO James said: “It has proved to be a fantastic engagement tool for us as it drew the public in, which then allowed us to speak to them and give them more information about road and fire safety.

“There is a large sound system in the back with a flat screen TV that we are able to show messages relating to fire and road safety or anything else that is relevant. The sound system is used to draw people in, as we really wanted to engage with the public as much as possible in order to help provide them with useful information.

“We primarily targeted the 17 to 25 age group as they have been proven to be most at risk when it comes to injury sustained through driving incidents.”

The team can be contacted through their Facebook page, via the 101 service by emailing [email protected] or PFCSO Mark James is available on email [email protected]