Taunton Retailers Against Crime (TRAC) has taken on responsibility for the Bridgwater and Burnham Security Group to create a new partnership, Somerset West Businesses Against Crime, which will cover the rural districts of Taunton Deane, Sedgmoor and West Somerset.
Partnership co-ordinator Andy Sharman said: ‘We were approached by the Bridgwater Business Crime Group as their partnership was suffering from a lack of co-ordination with no one able to take on that role, particularly with the impending reductions in public sector support. The TRAC board felt that we had an obligation to help as the loss of this local partnership would have affected us both. The enlarged partnership will also help to secure the long-term future for business crime reduction in west Somerset.
‘The benefits for members of the new partnership is that the flow of information between the towns covered will now be a lot easier. Our newly rebranded "Deter and Disrupt" policy will be set out as best practice across the whole area, which will greatly help the reduced police resource.
‘Our "Back on TRACK" programme for tackling re-offending and crime prevention will also be extended across the whole area. This will help offenders who show a willingness to change their behaviour and will help our members and our communities become more resilient to criminal activity.’
The partnership demographic caters for a large number of leisure and tourism locations as well as retailers and the night time economy. SWBAC is also developing a product for the local farming industry which is facing increasing crime, especially from organised criminal gangs.
