Joining police on their town centre patrols

This morning I joined PCSO Sanderson and PC Nelson from the neighbourhood policing team for Blackpool town centre, to see first hand the problems local police are encountering daily.

Within a couple of hours we heard about instances of shop lifting, diffused a confrontation, engaged positively with homeless people and even put out a bin fire.

I also had some lovely chats with punks attending Rebellion festival at the Winter Gardens - who the police say are always a pleasure.

Despite being under resourced, their dedication to keeping our residents safe is commendable.

As part of my commitment to being a proactive MP for Blackpool South, I will be doing these walkabouts regularly as well as keeping open lines of communication with police on issues they are facing.

Building a strong relationship with them is the first step I am taking to building a stronger force for Blackpool. Labour is setting out to deploy 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs, of which I am working to ensure hundreds of them are allocated to Blackpool.