Trowbridge communities urged to report anti-social behaviour incidents

The call comes from Sgt Charly Chilton, of Trowbridge Neighbourhood Policing Team, in Anti-Social Behaviour Awareness Week.

Sgt Charly Chilton said: “We're continuing to work closely with our community and partners to address anti-social behaviour (ASB) in key areas.

“One recent success was the removal of the Wicker Hill park benches. This decision was made after consulting with local residents, businesses, and partner agencies, addressing ongoing ASB concerns.

“By taking proactive steps together, we’re helping to create a safer and more welcoming environment for everyone.

These benches were removed from Wicker Hill on July 12 to stop people from gathering in the area and creating a disturbance. (Image: Trevor Porter)

“Specifically, in relation to anti-social behaviour it’s imperative that we work with our partner agencies so they can include people from our local town, and also Wiltshire Council, children’s services, youth justice system and our local businesses, pretty much anybody that you can think of within our communities we work with.

“I think that’s really important because anti-social behaviour isn’t just a policing issue. There are so many different agencies that have different levels of involvement, have different powers, compared to policing, all have different ways into the people who are responsible for anti-social behaviour.

“It’s really important to work with them so that we have that sort of wrap-around approach when we’re dealing with specific individuals or specific areas, to be able to combat the anti-social behaviour.”

Reports of anti-social behaviour in the Wicker Hill area have fallen dramatically since the benches were removed. (Image: Trevor Porter)

Police received 51 reports of anti-social behaviour in the Wicker Hill area between April and July 2024, including fighting, drug and alcohol use, and disorder, causing concerns to local businesses and the public.

Four benches were removed on July 12 to stop people from gathering in the area and the police worked closely with Trowbridge Town Council, Trowbridge Neighbourhood Services, Wiltshire Council and drug and alcohol agencies within the Trowbridge area to combat the problem and tackle the underlying issues.

Sgt Chilton added: “Initially, we asked for a short-term fix, for the benches to be removed, and that took away that area then as being able to be used for people to congregate, and that saw a dramatic decrease in reports.

“Subsequently, since then we’ve worked with the drug and alcohol agencies to really look at the individuals that were causing that anti-social behaviour to address the reasons as to why they were there.

“Wicker Hill, as a location itself, isn’t causing any issues with anti-social behaviour at the moment but we’re aware that there will always be an element of displacement.

“Obviously, where those areas are identified, the same level of partnership working is going to those specific areas as well.

“It’s really important that those reports continue to come in from our community so that we can ascertain where people are going and where the ASB is occurring and then looking at what we can do to resolve it.”

Sgt Charly Chilton parked a police vehicle at Wicker Hill in July to deter anti-social behaviour and enable people to report incidents. (Image: Trevor Porter)

Wiltshire Council, together with the police and Trowbridge Town Council, are now considering whether to apply for a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) for Trowbridge town centre. This could include a ban on alcohol consumption in public open spaces.

Trowbridge Town Council leader Stewart Palmen said: “I’m really pleased how we’ve managed to work together with the police, with the Chamber of Commerce within the town to improve on anti-social behaviour and street crime issues.

“Places like Wicker Hill we’ve removed some benches where people used to gather, we’ve targeted specific individuals who’ve caused issues and the town is improving.

“It’s all down to us working together rather than reporting to each other so to speak, so the town is standing up for itself.”