Late night streets get kinder

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A local team of Street Pastors carried out their first shift on Saturday night, May 2, covering Rye and Camber. Eight men and women patrolled the streets from 9:30pm until 3am, looking after people in trouble, introducing themselves to staff at late night drinking establishments, and handing out water, lollipops and even flip flops to revellers in need. Street Pastors, police and Accident and Emergency departments around the country know that alcohol and high heels do not always work well together.

Nizam Mohammed, the co-ordinator of the Rye and District Street Pastors group, reported a very positive and useful evening. Several vulnerable people were given help, including being escorted home. The Pastors are also happy to give directions and pick up litter.

The Street Pastors work in teams of three or four and each group contains at least one man and one woman. Each undergoes 60  hours of training and wears a clearly visible uniform. They are supported by Prayer Pastors who are based at the Baptist church on Cinque Ports Street for the same late night/early morning shifts. The pastors are drawn from all Christian denominations under the Rye Churches Together umbrella group.

The scheme has the full support of the police. In fact it was Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Sharon Eldridge who initially approached Rev Fiona Gill at Rye Baptist church in autumn 2012, asking her to set up a scheme, having seen the positive effect of Street Pastors in Bexhill and Hastings.

Inspector James Scott and PCSO Rachael Scott attended the commissioning service for Rye Street Pastors earlier in the evening on May 2. They told Rye News that anti-social behaviour in Bexhill had dropped by a half in the three years that the scheme had been running and that the two main problem venues had closed within six months. They informed us that Street Pastor schemes all over the country had seen similar results. The police are putting money into the scheme, providing a vehicle for Rye Street Pastors to use.

Some people struggle to understand why Rye would need a Street Pastor network, but teams from Bexhill came to Rye last year to assess the situation and found that there was a problem, largely invisible to the daytime visitor.

Rye Mayor Cllr Bernadine Fiddimore pointed out that the town has a disproportionately large amount of licensed premises, some of which are open late. She described walking home at night and how the area around the station in particular could be frightening, with intimidating groups of people lurking about in the dark. At the commissioning service, Fiddimore thanked the organisers for “providing a safety net that won’t slip”.

The Street Pastor network is operated by the Ascension Trust, which provides training and support to pastor networks across the country. The advantage of this consistent approach means that when Street Pastors move house, they can easily plug in to their new local group, already familiar with the standards and processes that are universally applied. This aided the establishment of the Rye Street Pastors, as Mohammed, who runs the Rye group had ten years’ experience in Epsom, which he has been able to use as a foundation for setting up the new team.

For now, Rye and District Street pastors will be out every other Friday night in Camber and  Saturday night in Rye, but they hope soon to add more volunteers and be looking after people in the area every Friday and Saturday nights. They plan to extend their reach to include Rye Harbour and Winchelsea. Interested parties should contact their church for more information.

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