The first Business Crime Forum meeting was held on Tuesday with officers from the Hucknall Beat Team and representatives of Ashfield District Council.

They met local shops and businesses based in Hucknall town centre.

The forum has been launched thanks to funding available under Safer Streets - a project which aims to help police and crime commissioners, local authorities and their partners secure extra resources and tools to prevent street crime, especially burglaries, robberies and vehicle offences.

Funding is being made available through the PCC office and Ashfield District Council. 

A social media post from Ashfield Police says: "The core goal is to support local shops and businesses, to prevent and deter shop thefts and anti-social behaviour issues. 

"The police will lead the scheme and chair meetings; but will be supported by the local community protection teams. 

"As part of the forum, a 'Shop Watch Scheme' will be introduced over the next month.  

"This involves retail premises being connected to the Police, community protection officers, CCTV and each other. This will allow stores to report suspicious individuals, to then be able to track them through the town centre, by alerting other members on the scheme, which will allow for live updates to the CCTV operators and Police.

"Police-chaired meetings will be held regularly; involving local shops and businesses to discuss individuals repeatedly offending and to develop a problem solving approach together. 

"This will include criminal behaviour orders being sought, banning individuals offending from the town centre. With information sharing agreements in place, the Business Crime Forum, will be able to share images of the problem individuals, along with any criminal behaviour conditions they are subject to. 

"This is not just about shop thefts and ASB issues. By working with shops and CCTV, officers can be directed to other concerns such as begging, drunkenness, public order issues, to hopefully increase feelings of safety for local shop workers and the community when visiting the town centre."

If you have a store or business operating in the town centre and would like to be part of the forum, please email [email protected] with your contact details.