Here’s every Merseyside area targeted in the summer street crime blitz

Shoppers and businesses across Merseyside will see increased police patrols and targeted action on town centre crime this summer, as the Home Secretary launches a major blitz to support safer high streets.

The blitz – which will see officers in town centres during peak times – has today been welcomed by David Baines, Labour MP for St Helens North: “For too long anti-social behaviour has been allowed to go unchecked and unpunished.”

More than 500 towns have signed up to the Home Secretary’s Safer Streets summer crackdown. In Merseyside, these include:

placeholder image — David Baines, Labour MP for St Helens North

Southport, Sefton
Birkenhead, Wirral
Huyton, Knowsley
St Helens
Banks Road, West Kirby, Wirral
Stanley Road, Bootle, Sefton
Kirkby
Prescot
Liverpool City Centre (Incl. Chavasse Park)

The towns will see increased police patrols and local action to tackle anti-social behaviour. Increased police presence will be accompanied by stronger prevention and enforcement action by police, councils and other local partners.

Under the previous government, shoplifting soared to record levels, with a staggering 70 per cent increase in their last two years in office alone. Recent data shows that nationally, there has been a further 20 per cent increase.

Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner, Emily Spurrell, has, with other Commissioners, drawn up targeted plans with councils, police and businesses to support thriving town centre where people feel safe to live, work and visit.

Emily Spurrell, also Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said: “PCCs and Deputy Mayors know how much people want to rid their neighbourhoods of criminal and anti-social behaviour (ASB) that blights too many communities.

“Tackling retail crime and ASB is essential to allowing our town centres to flourish. People have a right to feel safe and shop workers shouldn’t have to defence their stores against regular and organised theft, putting themselves at risk of violence.”

The plans include increased visible town centre policing and ramping up the use of targeted enforcement powers against troublemakers – including banning perpetrators from hotspots.

Fourteen years of Tory Government saw neighbourhood policing decimated. The number of PCSOs was slashed by half, while Special Constable numbers were cut by two-thirds.

The summer blitz comes as part of the Labour Government’s Plan for Change, which will also put 13,000 more police personnel in neighbourhood roles over the course of this Parliament, backed by a £200m cash injection in the first year.

Cheshire Police will receive its share of that funding this year.

The summer initiative will also support young people, making sure there are activities across the 500 towns for young people to be involved in throughout the holidays.

The Home Office, alongside police, retailers and industry are also launching a new Tackling Retail Crime Together Strategy, which will use shared data to assist in disrupting not just organised criminal gangs, but all types of perpetrators including prolific offenders who are stealing to fund an addiction and ‘opportunist’ offenders.

David Baines, Labour MP for St Helens North, added: “I have heard time and again from people across my constituency who have been affected when simply trying to go about their everyday lives.

“These measures are another welcome step in reversing the 14 years of decline under the Tories which decimated neighbourhood policing and let shoplifting and various other crimes soar.

“Alongside Labour’s new Crime and Policing Bill and plans to put 13,000 more neighbourhood police on our streets nationally, this initiative will play a huge role in recapturing town centres in areas like ours to be vibrant places where people want to live, work and spend time”