AVON and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner, Sue Mountstevens, addressed a packed community meeting in Chipping Sodbury Town Hall last week. 

Speaking at The Elms Neighbourhood Watch AGM on Wednesday, April 11, the PCC revealed that crime figures for the town were lower than last year.

Overall crime reports in Chipping Sodbury were down 7.2 per cent, she said, as compared to the same period last year.

In real figures, the number of crimes recorded for the current 12 month period was 346, as compared to the previous 12 months, which were 373.

And compared with this time last year, the amount of burglaries reported was down by ten incidents.

Mrs Mountstevens also spoke of the growing value of Neighbourhood Watch schemes to the police, in the face of continuing cuts to the constabulary’s budget.

With less officers to go round, she said, having active community minded people on the ground was very helpful.

Prior to her election as an independent PCC in 2012, and re-election in 2016, Mrs Mountstevens told the audience she had been a director of her family business, Mountstevens Bakeries, and was also a magistrate, serving on adult, youth and family cases.

“Now my role is to ask you, as active citizens in the Neighbourhood Watch, what we can do better,” she said.

She emphasised her own priorities, which included protecting the vulnerable members of society from harm. 

Missing persons was a particular headache, she said, with 8,000 per annum in the force area.

She was happy to report that despite the savage cuts in resources - there are 650 fewer officers than in 2012 - she was continuing to ring fence funding for the neighbouring policing measures such as PCSOs.

After emphasising the value she attached to listening to the public she ended with a plea that any concerns about the activities of the police should be sent directly to her office.

In response to questions from the floor, Mrs Mountstevens stressed that a 20mph limit was now saving four children’s lives a year.