Police and Crime Commissioner took to the streets of Worksop to find out what the main issues are

Paddy Tipping was joined by Sgt Simon Whitehouse and PC Glenn Turner, who is the beat officer for Worksop town centre and Coun Julie Leigh.

Paddy said: “The aim of this is to get out and about and talk to people and to see for myself what’s happening on the ground and going out with the officers.

“In the past, these kinds of events have been well-received by the public because they can discuss their concerns face-to-face with people whose job it is to solve them.

“I’m very grateful to our partners for giving up their time to make this such a positive, multi-agency event.

Sgt Simon Whitehouse said: “The main issues in Worksop at the minute are spice, rough sleepers and shoplifting.

“We have seen in different areas the spice users being moved on and pushed into different town centres as they try and disperse them.

“But it is not all about arrests and getting people in court. We are looking at it long term and whether we can have programmes in place and put them on a rehabilitation programme.

“We have to find the balance between treatment and enforcement but sometimes there is no other option.

“We can’t force them to seek treatment but we can arrest them.

“If we know the cause and they will engage we will get them to a group and get them help.”

Sgt Whitehouse also said that they are looking at their night time provision.

On Sunday, September 16, police were called to a report of an assault in Bridge Place, Worksop, at around 2.30am.

A fight is believed to have taken place between a group of people, resulting in a 25-year-old man being taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Detectives are continuing to review CCTV and enquiries are on-going to identify others involved.

If anyone has any information that may help the investigation, call 101, quoting incident number 114 of September 16.

He said: “We don’t often have problems so we had better placed the resources however in response to recent incidents we are putting more officers out there at the weekends.”

Paddy added: “I chatted with a new PCSO who has been in the job for about a year.

“We are moving back up to 200 PCSOs and the number are growing because responses are growing.

“We have got more resources than there has been in recent years.”

It was announced earlier this year that Nottinghamshire Police plans to increase its officers to almost 2,000 in the next year.

The force are recruiting more front line officers with plans to bring on an extra 200, including 50 apprentices, in the next year.

When retirements from the force are taken into account, this should bring the current total of 1,909 officers in the county to 1,950 by April next year.

It costs around £10,000 to train a police officer and £50,000 a year to pay for them once they are fully qualified.