IN the latest of a series introducing the area’s police inspectors, Insp Eileen Hughes, who is in charge of Halliwell and the town centre, tells crime reporter Alex Peace about the issues affecting the area and what is being done to tackle them.

Inspector Hughes joined GMP in 1990, originally in Stockport and moved to the Bolton Division in June this year.

She is looking at a number of issues affecting the area, including begging and rough sleepers, burglaries at businesses and anti-social behaviour.

In the town centre, police are receiving complaints from businesses and the public about begging as they believe it puts people off from shopping in the town.

To combat this, town centre PCSOs have been trained to complete summons files and 32 have been submitted over the past four months.

Officers have also been visiting town centre businesses to offer advice about stopping them being targeted by burglars.

On top of this, officers have been combating anti-social behaviour.

Insp Hughes said: “There is currently an issue with males taking spice. A disruption/intelligence gathering plan is in place.

“There has been a group of youths that have been placed on pathways and the first meeting was a success and they have not reoffended.”

One of the main areas of concern in Halliwell is robberies in Queens Park after dark.

Insp Hughes said: “Patrols are allocated to patrol during their tour of duty for public reassurance and intelligence gathering.”

In Halliwell the force is also carrying out a place based integration model operation, which looks at agencies working together to focus on problems where the individuals involved have not yet reached crisis point and don't have a statutory agency involved. Officers share information and resources with other organisations to tackle the issues.

Insp Hughes stated that police in the town can only continue to carry out their work with the help of the public.

She said: “Our priorities are set in line with the information and calls that we have received from the public and from them via our partners. These are the issues that matter the most to you and that we will be taking action to tackle first. To do this, we need your help and support and without that, will be limited in what we can do.

“If you have any information that will assist us in disrupting criminal activities call us on 101, or if you want to remain anonymous, please contact Crimestoppers 0800 555 111.”