Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has outlined what she thinks is needed to tackle anti-social behaviour in East Lancs following a visit to one of the area’s towns.

In a visit to the Mooch Café in Padiham with Labour's candidate in Burnley at the next election Oliver Ryan on Thursday (March 30), Ms Cooper said a push to increase the number of neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs is needed if people are to start feeling safe in their towns again.

Following an announcement from the Government at the start of the week about how they were to crack down on anti-social behaviour with new measures, Ms Cooper felt the lack of mention for neighbourhood policing was concerning.

Lancashire Telegraph:

She said: “We’ve had this massive cut in neighbourhood policing right across the country. In the North West, there was about a 40 per cent cut in neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs. If you talk to people they’ll say they never see police on the beat anymore and that’s a real problem.

“I looked at all the things the Government said and there wasn’t a single mention of neighbourhood policing, so nothing to reverse the huge cuts in that. If you want to tackle anti-social behaviour, you need the local police to do it.

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“You need people who know what’s going on in Padiham, in Burnley, across Lancashire; you need people who know what is going on in those real local areas. The local eyes and ears, the real boots on the ground, and that’s what’s been so badly cut under the Conservatives.

“Our plan is to have 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs across the country. For the North West it would be about 1,500 and it means bringing back those community police who know what is going on in each area and who know what’s happening.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

Given the cuts that have been made to community policing, Ms Cooper feels that too many instances of criminal damage are going unpunished and it has a negative effect on the local residents.

She said: “When you get criminal damage – windows smashed, break-ins, those things – there’s no enforcement. Hardly anybody ever gets charged and that’s because there aren’t the neighbourhood police to follow up and take action.

“That means you’ve got criminals getting away with it and you’ve got the problems with anti-social behaviour that affect local businesses, affect local residents, and stop people feeling safe.

“That’s why at the heart of what we’re saying is get the neighbourhood police back into communities.”

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On other alternative plans Labour would have to the announcements made earlier this week, Ms Cooper said plans have been set out to have youth mentors work with young people to keep them away from crime and to introduce mental health professionals into secondary schools.

She also touched upon the issue of violence against women and girls, mentioning specifically issues of drink spiking and said more neighbourhood police would mean closer ties between them and pubs and clubs to help tackle the issue.

She said: “There is a broader issue about violence against women and girls, and that can include things like harassment and spiking in pubs and clubs.

“Keir Starmer has set out as part of what a mission for a Labour Government would be is to halve the level of violence against women and girls over a decdade.

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“You have to have everybody working together, you need the police on the streets, and if you’re dealing with things like spiking, you need police to be working with pubs and clubs.

“You need to do that prevention work. For me, neighbourhood policing is the start of all of it. Whatever it is you want to do, if you want to tackle knife crime or domestic abuse, you need those neighbourhood police in the community, and I just don’t think the Tories get that.”

Padiham itself has had difficult experiences with anti-social behaviour and that can have a knock-on effect on how businesses in the town operate.

Alisson Mooch, owner of the café where Ms Cooper’s visit took place, said that she is often asked whether she would change her opening hours but is worried about what could happen if she does.

Lancashire Telegraph: Alisson Mooch, owner of Mooch Cafe in PadihamAlisson Mooch, owner of Mooch Cafe in Padiham (Image: LT)

She said: “There’s a lot of drug-related problems in the town but we don’t tend to see it with closing at 4pm. I’m often asked whether I’m going to open later, are you going to do evenings, but I think it would be a risk if I did. I think it’s a day-night separation.

“I think because Padiham is a small community and everybody knows everybody, if something happens it seems so huge. There’s only 8,000 people here and there does seem to be quite a high petty crime rate.”

When asked whether she felt Labour’s alternative plans could flip the situation, Alisson said: “I really don’t know. We’d need a huge amount of spending on our police, our schools, and our hospitals, and until you see what pot of money there is available, who knows whether that could be achieved by anybody.”