A REPORT published by Avon and Somerset Police has indicated that they back calls to close a troublesome underpass in Yate.

The potential closure of the underpass by Sundridge Park and Yate Shopping Centre has been the subject of intense speculation after the council started an online consultation after ongoing issues with the area.

South Gloucestershire Councillor John Gawn headed up calls to tackle problems with the underpass after regular problems with anti-social behaviour.

Now though, police have fully investigated the area and have released a report.

It documents issues with the area and shows that there has been a large increase in crime within a 200m radius of the underpass.

Statistics released in the report say that from December 2017 until December 2018 there were no reported crimes of any kind.

This shows there has been a sharp increase with stats for December 2018 until December 2019 stating there had been 317 recorded incidents.

Of these, 151 incidents were theft and 76 were violence against another individual.

In the report, the police say: “As well as resulting in substantial amounts of police resources the anti-social behaviour also results in the creation of large amounts of rubbish requiring often daily cleaning by the Streetcare department of the council.

“The rubbish left includes drink glasses, bottles, broken glass and general retail rubbish.

“This makes the area not only a drain on resources but also such that residents do not feel safe in the vicinity.”