Earlier this year, Caroline Lucas MP had discussions with Brighton Chief Inspector Rachel Swinney about her community policing role. CI Swinney said that a plan was being pulled together to help make it easier for officers to attend Local Action Teams regularly. While West Hill’s action team has lapsed since Cllr Lizzie Deane was no longer able to chair it, West Hill residents can make their concerns known directly to their MP or local councillors; write to The Whistler and we will collate and send them on; or via public meetings that WHCA will host if there are major concerns.

Caroline Lucas has scheduled quarterly meetings/phone calls with CI Swinney and her team but as soon as she heard about an incident at Bright News, rather than wait until her next catch-up she contacted them immediately and reported the level of concern there is about drug dealing and anti-social behaviour on Buckingham Road and nearby.

Issues covered recently between Caroline and CI Swinney included city-wide concern about delivery drivers; anti-social behaviour; knife crime; and graffiti prevention/removal. Whilst CI Swinney didn’t offer any immediate solutions to some of the problems they discussed, Caroline is hopeful that communication with the local community will improve, and that this will be reflected in the police response to incidents and issues reported.