A NEW team of community safety officers has started work in Southend this week.

The team, introduced by the council after concerns were raised by community leaders and residents, will help to make High Street, Southend and the town centre safe.

Working across a seven-day week, the six new uniformed officers will support Essex Police and other agencies across central Southend.

After an induction and training day on Monday, officers joined BID street rangers for their first patrols yesterday.

The new team will be shadowing rangers from the Business Improvement District into next week.

The interim team has been put in place following a High Street summit that was held on September 24, with the process to recruit a permanent team, including a community safety team manager already underway.

Extra funding has been secured to help improve the town centre following problems with anti-social behaviour, drinking and aggressive begging.

Councillor James Courtenay, deputy leader of Southend Council, said: “We cannot solve all the issues we face in the town centre overnight, but we know people and businesses want to see a more visible presence in central Southend.

“These new officers will support the important activity already underway by police offices and BID street rangers and will provide increased reassurance and uniformed support and presence across the entire week.

“This shows that we are taking the issues we face seriously and are moving at pace following the High Street summit.”

The team will provide reassurance and visibility within the town centre area, as well as providing more official resource to engage with and encourage rough sleepers to take up the support available to them.

The team will also report incidents and build up a picture of anti-social behaviour and help all agencies to develop plans to address them.

Work to consider a process that would allow the council, BID and police to tackle unattended items left in private doorways and the public highway is also underway. A campaign aimed at encouraging shoppers to donate to local charity, instead of giving their change to people begging will also launch at the end of this month.

Chief Insp Neil Pudney, Southend’s District Commander said: “The investment in and introduction of these new officers is brilliant news. We already have a strong and vibrant community safety hub with police and partner agencies co-located and working together. That partnership team will now become even stronger and I look forward to working closely with this new team to deal with the issues and concerns that really affect our communities.”