At the start of October Avon and Somerset Police re-organised their beat teams. They’ve used the new South Gloucestershire Council wards that will come into effect next May as the building blocks.

Most of the old Frampton Cotterell beat has merged with the Charfield beat to create the Frampton and Charfield beat. This covers an area including Coalpit Heath, Frampton Cotterell, Iron Acton, Nibley, Rangeworthy and Tytherington. They currently have two Police Constables, Finbar Simmons and Lee Bainbridge, and no PCSOs for a vast beat.

Westerleigh is in the new Boyd, Emersons and Lyde beat. They have two PCs (Stuart Cumine and James Rochford) and three PCSOs (Sam Derrick, Katrina Sheldrake and Joshua Cryer).

Covering such large beats with limited officers is challenging. At the recent Community Engagement Forums, officers were stressing that it is really important that people don’t report crime directly to beat teams, as they may well not pick it up very quickly. Instead you should use 999 for crimes currently underway where there is a risk to life or property and 101 for reporting other crimes. Issues for the beat team will then be passed on to them.

They also explained that they have now been issued with laptops so they can do paperwork out and about. If you see them working in a coffee shop, feel free to approach them.