Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Danielle Stone and Assistant Chief Constable Adam Ward took a walk around Corby town centre yesterday (August 20) to better understand the concerns of local businesses and visitors to the town.
Danielle and Adam were joined on the visit by Deputy Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Marianne Kimani, members of the local policing team and Dan Pickard, Centre Director of Corby Town Centre Shopping and Willow Place.
During a positive visit, Danielle and Adam met retailers to understand their experience of crime. They also heard from Dan Pickard and the local police officers about the successful partnership work taking place to tackle shoplifting in Corby.
Danielle and Adam also spoke with Cllr John McGhee about experiences in his Kingswood ward, as well as having a productive conversation with the town’s MP Lee Barron (pictured below)
After the meeting, Danielle said that she and Adam aimed to work with the town centre manager, the Business Crime Partnership and local politicians to develop a ‘preventative community’ that would come together to make sure that criminals feel unwelcome in Corby town centre.
“Corby is a large and growing town, and it was very important to me to speak with local retailers,” Danielle said. “I want all of Northamptonshire’s town centres to be safe, thriving places for safe, thriving people. Better local, visible, accessible policing is key to that, and I was pleased to see how well engaged the town centre police team already are.
“A lot of good partnership work is taking place already and today’s meeting helped me to understand that, and to hear from businesses what else needs to be done to make the town safer.”
Assistant Chief Constable Adam Ward (pictured above) said that it was clear that the strong management of Corby Town Centre area had made a difference to the town.
“This is an incredibly positive, upbeat town centre and it is a tribute to the huge amount of investment and attention that is being paid to the area. I understand that visible policing plays a particularly vital role in building up that confidence in a town centre and I also understand the pressure that retail crime puts on local businesses. Northamptonshire Police is one of the few police services that has targets for and measures how visible our officers are in the community.
“There is already a model of great partnership working in Corby and I want to build on that, with the huge commitment that the town centre policing team clearly have to keeping people safe. We’ll be strengthening our neighbourhood policing approach, to engage with communities, solve problems before they grow into bigger issues and have prevention at the heart of everything we do to make people safer.”
Dan Pickard (pictured above) of Corby Town Centre said: “It was great to meet Danielle to talk about not only challenges but opportunities. Working together, the public and private sector can make Corby Town Centre a better place and unattractive for anti-social behaviour.”
