Bridport Carnival and Torchlight Procession

As this was my first involvement as the Bridport town centre community beat officer in this year’s events I would like to thank the public and organisers who attended or were involved in the procession. On the whole they were enjoyable and fun for those who took part. However it should be noted that there were a number of incidents, which occurred.

Early in the evening of the carnival a male was assaulted in the vicinity of Crewkerne Place at approximately 8pm. Later a pick pocketing occurred in a licensed premise between 10 and 11pm. A wallet containing cash and bankcards was stolen.

A number of other assaults were reported in the town and outskirts into the early hours. One male was arrested and subsequently dealt with for an offence. There were a vast number of people in town during the carnival and the officers on duty responded to numerous calls ranging from disturbances at the fairground to noise complaints and nuisance behaviour. But on the whole the evening was enjoyable for the majority.

The Torchlight procession was a thoroughly enjoyable night with only traffic disruption and crowd control as our main concerns, there were no reported significant incidents and this was a very enjoyable evening, which culminated in fireworks display from East pier.

Arrests

Over the period between August 16th to 22nd 9 arrests were made: -

2x assault actual bodily harm
1x common assault
1x criminal damage
2x cultivation of cannabis
1x positive breath test- drink drive
1x sexual assault
1x theft of a bicycle

Beware of bogus door to door collections

West Dorset District Council and Dorset Police would like to warn the public to be wary of bogus house-to-house charity collections.  The House-to-House Collections Act 1939 requires charitable collections to be approved and licensed by the district council.  The council licensing officer has received calls from concerned members of the public regarding flyers and plastic sacks which have been posted through letterboxes appealing for donations of unwanted clothes, footwear and household items for the benefit of charity where the donated items may not be applied for the purpose stated.  The flyers indicate that a registered company is collecting items but this does not exempt them from the requirement to obtain a licence/authorisation from the local authority.  The majority of collections conducted in West Dorset are approved and conducted correctly, if you would like to check the authenticity of a collection please refer to a list of approved collections which is available on the councils website www.dorsetforyou.com under charity collections. Alternatively phone the councils licensing officer on 01305 252441 or your local police station.

If you have any information regarding the above offences or any other crimes, then please come forward and help us with our enquiries:  it may be your evidence, which successfully secures a conviction.  Instead of accepting that crime is part of the Bridport society, let’s give the courts the facts and allow them to decide.

Contact the police station direct, or speak to Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111 – all calls will be treated in confidence

PC 2232 Scott McGregor
Community Beat Officer