‘We will answer’ promise to door-knockers amid concerns over no police front desk at New Milton Town Hall base

NEW Milton’s police officers will answer a knock at their back door despite there being no public front desk, a meeting has been told.

PCSOs Alan McCaffery and Rosie Readhead were answering questions during a beat surgery for residents held at the Ashley Youth Hub.

The rear of the Ashley Road building has been their base since the town’s police station was sold off for development back in 2013.

One resident wanted clarification about the availability of public-facing officers at New Milton Town Hall.

Reiterating there is no police front desk, PCSO Readhead said: “This has been considered in the past, but it’s always just been in the pipeline.”

A yellow phone is on the wall at the hall’s main entrance, connecting straight to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight 101 call centre.

But she added: “If we are on duty, if people knock on the door, we will answer because it could be a real emergency.”

Both PCSOs stressed policing team members are not present at the office 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And police vehicles in the car park also do not necessarily mean officers are in the building, PSCO McCaffery added.

Asked whether officers still walked the beat, PCSO Readhead confirmed they did when resources allowed but “not as often as we’d like”.

Patrols were more likely to be on bicycles rather than on foot as this allowed quicker response if called to the other side of town., she said.

New Milton’s policing cover consists of one acting sergeant, four constables and the two PCSOs.

But PCSO McCaffery stressed “no two days are the same” as sometimes some officers are deployed elsewhere to cover shortages.

Another resident shared concerns about time it takes for officers to respond to a person who has reported an offence.

PCSO McCaffery explained that neighbourhood teams dealt with what were classed as low-level offences.

With incidents triaged and risk-assessed at the time of reporting, he said these were often dealt with in “slowtime” but with the same outcome.

“This means that the evidence, whether we have it tomorrow or in a few weeks’ time, doesn’t make any difference to how we resolve it,” PCSO McCaffery said.

“This includes speaking to the victims and putting any security measures in place.”

PCSO McCaffery shared hopes that autumn would bring extra local resources, but he did not know from where these would come.

He added: “We were always told this summer would be very busy, and it has been quite difficult at times.”

Although stressing not all issues in the town were caused by youngsters, PCSO Readhead said the fact that schools and colleges break up for six weeks over the summer “has to be taken into account”.

“There can be issues caused by summertime drinking when, sometimes, things can get out of hand,” she said.

Ashley Youth Hub is hosting another beat surgery on Thursday 24th October.