It was great to catch up with Surrey’s new Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Lisa Townsend earlier today. Lisa’s hit the ground running as PCC, consulting with communities across the county on her developing Police and Crime Plan.
A good working relationship with the Police and Crime Commissioner is important to ensure that local concerns in Elmbridge are tackled effectively. Crime is low in Elmbridge overall, and indeed figures released yesterday showed that we have the second lowest crime rate in Surrey. We have, however, seen some worrying incidents of anti-social behaviour, burglaries and knife crime – so this meeting was a good opportunity to raise these issues with Lisa.
We also discussed unauthorised encampments. It’s good news that a new transit site will shortly be available in Merstham, allowing the police to direct unauthorised encampments to relocate there, and that legislation currently in Parliament will create a new criminal offence in this area and strengthen existing police powers.
Lisa will be consulting more widely on her developing plan in the coming months. I’d encourage residents to feed in your views when you can.
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