AT THE Bude-Stratton, and Poughill, Town Annual Meeting on Thursday, April 28, PC Stephen South spoke on the new guidelines for police engagement for 2016.

He explained that many people had approached him with queries and concerns over the recent closure of the enquiry office at Bude’s police station.

PC South told the meeting that he wanted to address this concern and reiterate the new guidelines put in place to ensure the best possible service can be delivered to the people of Bude, Stratton and the surrounding parishes.

These new guidelines include PCSOs being ‘assigned’ parishes, which will become their ‘ward’ as such, and PC South wanted to inform those in the community of who was best for them to contact should they have an issue in their parish.

PC South told the meeting: “At the end of last year I met with a number of parish clerks regarding new guidelines for police engagement from 2016 onwards.

“This engagement has been produced after reviewing consultation with town and parish councils in June and police sector inspectors in September 2015 to establish an agreed minimum level.”

He continued to explain that a member of the neighbourhood police team, usually himself, will visit the larger councils, that of Bude-Stratton Town Council, twice a year — dependant on whether an incident occurs at the time of the meeting as he wanted to stress public safety would come first.

The smaller, parish councils would receive a visit from a member of the neighbourhood team yearly.

The visits to the parish meetings will primarily be carried out by PCSOs who will either attend a council’s annual general meeting or similar event. However, they are aware that some parish councils annual meetings fall around similar times so these visits may have to be spaced out over a longer period.

PC South told the Post that the police team have set up a system in which one PSCO is assigned to a set of parishes so that, should the public have an issue, they are on hand to deal with it effectively — the system is in place in order to make life easier for residents so they only deal with one officer during a situation instead of being passed from one to another.

These PCSOs will attend the parish council annual meetings of the parishes they are assigned, to improve police contact in those specific areas.

Bude Town Council meetings will continue to be attended by PC South, who can be contacted on [email protected]

PCSO Langan will cover the parishes of: Kilkampton, Morwenstow, Poundstock, Marhamchurch and Launcels. To contact PSCO Langan email [email protected]

PCSO Baxter will cover the parishes of: North Tamerton, Whitstone, Boyton, Week St Mary and Jacobstow. To contact PSCO Baxter email [email protected]

PC South added: “Bude police station is manned 24/7 which some people don’t seem to realise. We only closed the front desk due to funding cuts.

“Unfortunately, Newquay is now the closest custody centre to Bude, after the Launceston Custody Centre was closed in October 2015

“This means we sometimes are required to transport prisoners to Newquay for processing, which has had an impact on police resources in and around the Bude area at certain times. But we urge the public to get in contact with us whether that is via the website or social media, as we do try our best to get a speedy response to those in our area to help minimise crime rates.”

The Bude police team can be contacted, along with the rest of the neighbourhood team, for non-emergency incidents, by email, calling 101, visiting www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/reportcrime or by appointment.