by 
Stroll around the historic market town of Bridgwater, Somerset, on a quiet weekday and you’ll be charmed by its old-world charm. Its streets are lined with grand Victorian architecture, including a bustling library. Stop for a pint at The Fountain Inn overlooking the Parrett, and the friendly locals will greet you with a soft West Country burr. This week, there’s even a market show supporting local traders.
Thanks to its location right next to the M5, it is also seen as the business heart of the region; the new £30bn plant being built at Hinkley Nuclear Power Station is less than 30 minutes away.
But for all its merits, Bridgwater – like many other towns in the country – has a dark side dragging it down. He is bothered by petty crime and anti-social behaviour.
In recent years, his shops have been hit by young people who steal with impunity – often wearing hideous masks and carrying several knives. And if you were to stand at the bottom of the high street, even before the bell of St. Mary’s parish church strikes noon, you will find a dozen or so men threatening – some of them homeless, or in halfway houses after being released recently. from prison. They generally cry and drink, and are seen openly taking drugs.
These threats to both local shoppers and residents have become so common, that the town is slowly being destroyed.
Bridgwater, then, is a prime example of what home secretary Yvette Cooper says is an area plagued by “quiet crimes” – nuisance, theft, shoplifting, assaults. These are under-reported crimes that cause widespread misery to society.
At the Labor Party Conference this week, she promised a crackdown on such behaviour, which will come from investment in 13,000 new police officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), as well as guaranteed local patrols.
In addition, she said police will be given powers to target persistent offenders with ‘respect orders’ – a reformed form of ASBOs – which will allow them to ban offenders from the city centre.
A new specific offense will also be created for assaulting a shop worker, following extensive campaigning by the shop workers union, USDAW and the Co-operative.
In Bridgwater, this could be too little, too late. Some independent shops are completely closed and empty while others – such as Boots – have boarded up their windows with plywood, the glass recently smashed by local youths. A local tells us that he will not bring his child to the town, for fear of violence or swearing.
“Bridgwater is a great place to live, and the people are brilliant,” says the town’s Conservative MP Ashley Fox. “But as in many other areas, anti-social behavior is a big issue. “We need to stop the culture where people are given benefits that they can spend on drinking without getting the help they need to fight their addiction or maintain gainful employment. “Shoppers and businesses alike do not welcome men walking in the street. If the Home Secretary is willing to tackle this scourge then that is good, but it must be more than a soundbite in a speech. We need to see improvements on the ground.”
At Coffee#1, a cafe halfway up the high street, Deacon Greenwood, the assistant manager, welcomes the idea of a suspicious crackdown.
“Crime is out of control and has been for a long time,” he says. “Homeless men are a big problem. We used to let them use our toilets but then we found needles in there so we stopped. Now they are hanging around the side of our coffee shop because the Council has no open public bet. It’s terrible.”
He also says gangs of teenagers who target the shops wear masks with happy faces to make them look even more sinister.
“We all know who they are,” he says. “I know the names of some of them. But nothing is done because they are young – 13 or 14 or so. They came in here last week and put our rubbish upstairs, kicking things over and swearing at the staff. The whole town is ruined because of this, and I notice that new shops are popping up just out of town away from everything. I don’t know what difference new powers could make because these kids seem to be able to do anything because they are so young.”
It’s a similar story up and down the high street. Some shoppers even show us CCTV of brazen kids – some still in their school uniforms – ducking behind shop counters to steal a vape. Others say that young people lay scaffolding poles on the local train tracks, or jump on local trains and pull the emergency cord.
For the manager of the Millets outerwear store, Carina Dimitrescu, the problem has worsened since Covid. The cost of living crisis has fueled it, and children know they can get away with stealing. “Kids come in and run out with hats and gloves,” she says, “or bring a bunch of items to the counter, pretend to pay with their card and then run. Homeless people also come to steal North Face jackets and sell them for pay to get a chance. I used to call the police but now only bother with it in the worst cases, and even then they don’t come. The worst recent theft involved someone stealing an entire shelf of T-shirts worth around £400. I saw them at home the next day wearing one.”
Unable to stop her stock from being stolen in broad daylight, Dimitrescu is left with few options. “If I see the kids coming, I close the shop doors,” she says. “Yes, we lose customers but what can we do? And even when I close them, I know the kids might kick them in because they’re violent.”
Like her local MP she is not convinced that any new crackdown by the Home Secretary will work. “The problems have been here for a long time. Why is no one prosecuted? Or even a fine?” she asks. “Why is it legal to wear a mask down the street in broad daylight? Why do the police have so many resources that we don’t even report this? It makes me angry. In Romania, I don’t have this question. I want to grab these kids, and arrest them. But of course I would go to jail.”
This issue is not limited to Bridgwater alone. According to the Office for National Statistics, 2023 was the worst year ever for shoplifting, with more than 430,000 cases recorded across the UK, an increase of more than a third on the previous year.
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) says one in two businesses are affected by the rise in shopping. Meanwhile, the British Retail Consortium has reported that violence and abuse against shop workers is up 50 per cent – to 1,300 a day – in the year to September 2023.
But this town is at least trying to fight back. Every Friday evening at Cafe#1, the local council runs a youth group to tackle anti-social behaviour. “There are drinks and board games, which is a good idea,” says Greenwood. “But to be honest, nobody comes.” Local businesses held meetings to discuss the issue, as one trader, named Katie, told the BBC: “Money is falling. [of our businesses] because we cannot afford to continue trading when the amount of rain has decreased.”
In February the local council made the rather drastic decision to increase the council tax precept to help fund the local police. It followed a 12-week consultation with fed residents, which found 70 per cent supported an increase of £10 or more to boost police resources, while 45 per cent supported an increase of £20. In practice, the result of the increase is that residents in a typical Band D property – valued at £68,000 to £88,000 – pay £13 a year more.
In fact, on our visit, the police were out in force. At one point, four community officers were seen helping to retrieve a man with dementia who had escaped from a local hospital. Another spent much of the day under the Victorian Corn Exchange chatting with the locals. “I don’t know what powers the new Home Secretary can bring in,” one police officer said of the proposed new crackdown.
“We already have powers to stop disorderly people and move them on. We often move forward with groups of men, but it just pushes the problem elsewhere.” Despite the visible policing, however, some people doubt that anything is really being done, especially to tackle the young people.
As one local resident, in his early thirties, said: “I tell my partner not to come into town, and definitely not to bring our two-year-old with her if she does. She came in once and just under oath so it’s not worth it.
“I go into the town center by myself from time to time and you see the police chatting and laughing with the kids who are causing the trouble. They do nothing about it. Come on Saturday, then you’ll see a little bow made by the police and the gangs breaking up the shops. So, even if they have new powers, what will really change?
“Bridgewater used to be fine and there’s so much potential here, especially with the nuclear stations nearby. But now we all try to avoid it. It’s so sad.”
