TENSIONS reached boiling point on Tuesday as Wiltshire Police had to address a barrage of criticism from Trowbridge town councillors over the way policing is carried out in the town.

A lack of officer visibility and antisocial behaviour were the main worries from councillors at the full council meeting as they were given a presentation by police and crime commissioner Angus Macpherson to relive such concerns.

However, many raised fears about public drinking in the town including Cllr Graham Payne who said: “People are sick, tired and fed up of walking past the town bridge to be verbally abused.

“Young ladies are frightened to go down to these areas because of the sexist comments they are getting.

“What needs to happen is that they [offenders] are locked up or deported.

“We also have a problem with drugs in this town but I see on a regular basis young individuals trading drugs on the streets of Trowbridge.”

The community policing model, which was implemented last year, saw the scrapping of NPTs in place of a one team which the force said brought together the skills and experience of smaller teams.

But as a result, councillors including Peter Fuller said the changes have meant there are fewer police officers visible on the streets of Trowbridge.

He said: “The public miss seeing the officers during the day and I wonder if you are being stretched too far going all the way from Bradford on Avon to Mere.”

At the meeting, Mr Macpherson encouraged the councillors to embrace the Community Messaging model which delivers daily updates to your phone or computer and he also denied rumours that officers would eventually move to County Hall.

“People do not go into police stations the same way they used to so we are branching out in working in our communities,” he added.

“We have no plans to close Trowbridge police station but there are plans to embrace technology and I ask you to join us on that journey.”

Inspector James Brain, who produces a crime report for the town council, was also on hand to calm concerns over antisocial drinking and said it is not as simple as locking up the offenders. “They need support as well and it is not just about enforcement,” he added. “It is about looking at it as a whole and I would encourage people to report the issues as it means we have more evidence to go on.

“Community Messaging is key to getting that information out to the communities. While you don’t get the stats but we are giving you information at the right time and you need to embrace that.”