Police callouts to Newport city centre 'fewest in Gwent'

Chief Constable Julian Williams told the Gwent Police and Crime Panel that the force was busiest in Torfaen, followed by Newport East and West, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Monmouthshire.

The comments came after Newport Conservative councillor William Routley raised concerns about falling community confidence in policing.

“The majority of the public never come into contact with serious crime. However, they do come into contact with low priority crime such as antisocial behaviour,” said Cllr Routley.

“In Newport I know that we’re working towards addressing that, but we have a long way to go.”

Cllr Routley said a “huge amount of people” were witnessing antisocial behaviour within Newport city centre and the bus station without “immediate action” from police officers.

The Langstone councillor referred to hooded youths “riding round on bikes and hanging onto the backs of buses”.

He added: “We need to deal with it in a serious manner. You must arrest, they have to realise that there is a consequence for their actions.”

In response, Mr Williams said officers would have no problem arresting anyone if there was evidence to do so.

Chief Constable Julian Williams

The chief constable agreed that there was an “issue” in Newport but said the city centre was the area in Gwent which attracted the fewest amount of calls “by far”.

“Because it’s Newport city centre, it attracts a huge amount of publicity,” said Mr Williams.

“We’ve given eight extra members of staff to the city centre and they’ve been taken from other areas of [Gwent] to deal with those issues.

“We think we’ve had a positive response. We don’t think on occasions that has been [portrayed] positively in the media but that is something for us to do.

“Any issue, no matter how minor the antisocial behaviour, will make people feel more anxious.

“I can assure you we’ve put extra staff in the area and we’ll concentrate on and deal with that appropriately.”

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said that since last October, 15 officers had been recruited onto a policing team covering the city centre and Stow Hill.

The eight officers referred to by Mr Williams have been assigned to a task group specifically focused on the city centre.