POLITICIANS have been focusing on the ongoing problems of anti-social behaviour in St Austell town centre.

St Austell Central Cornwall councillor Anne Double (Conservative) has been meeting with stakeholders and has had further meetings in the last couple of weeks to work on a long-term solution.

Meanwhile, Daniel Steel, the Labour and Co-operative Party candidate in the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner election in May, has met with St Austell Business Improvement District (BID) which provides private security in the town centre.

Cllr Double said: “What I will say is we will never get rid of anti-social behaviour, no area ever will. We just need to manage it and continue to report issues to the police and council.

“I often see a lot of comments on social media, but social media is not the place to report these issues. Please do so via the 101 police webform or the ‘Report It’ tool on the Cornwall Council website.

“It was interesting to hear that a local person, who lives on the edge of St Austell, stated that he thought there had been a marked improvement in anti-social behaviour in the town.

“We are, thankfully, not at the top of the so-called leaderboard in Cornwall but we are not at the bottom either. This is down to the hard work of stakeholders and the public for reporting these issues in the appropriate way.

“We still have a long way to go, but we are making progress.”

Daniel Steel, a former diplomat who has represented the UK in Afghanistan, Egypt and at the United Nations, discussed with residents the issues of anti-social behaviour which make them wary of venturing into the town centre.

He said: “Organisations like St Austell BID are doing their best to fill the gap left in community policing. If elected, my top priority will be to put the police back on the streets so people feel safe wherever they live.”

Current commissioner Alison Hernandez (Conservative), who has held the post since 2016 and was re-elected in 2021, is standing in the May election, where Steve Lodge is the candidate for the Liberal-Democrats.