POLICE say that cooperative working with town centre businesses and an increase in high visibility patrols has led to a sharp fall in demand on officers dealing with anti-social and public order incidents in Wrexham town centre.

Wrexham’s neighbourhood policing team has been working closely with the council and representatives of the business community and night time economy, especially with staff at fast food outlets and pubs and clubs, to cut the number of police call outs to disorder and unacceptable behaviour.

Sgt Simon Williams said: “It’s important to reassure the public and to counter some of the negative images portrayed at times, that plenty of work is going on with a wide range of groups to ensure Wrexham town centre is a safe place day and night.

“Officers are regularly out and about engaging with the community and people may well have seen us patrolling with our sniffer dog Rufus while carrying out stop searches as part of our crackdown on drug dealing.”

Officers are also working closely with nightclubs and pubs all year round to ensure people can have a safe and enjoyable night out, advising and teaching staff how to deal safely with issues which might arise, knowing they can call the police if needed.

Sgt Williams went on: “We have done tremendous work with outlets such as McDonalds over the last year. Management attend multi- partnership meetings and are working proactively with us to reduce demand in the town centre.

“Calls to the restaurant to deal with unruly youngsters during the day or to early morning disturbances have dropped significantly this year. In May we attended on 18 occasions, by November it was seven.”

Sgt Williams added: “Wrexham is a safe place, but we are never complacent and we will continue to work with the public sector and business community as we drive down crime.”