KINGSBRIDGE Police officers, along with members of Kingsbridge Town Council and Plymouth University students, will be on the streets today in Kingsbridge and Salcombe, talking to members of the public.

PC Dave Tungate, PC Ryan Hayhurst, PC Jo Pengilly, town clerk Martin Johnson, Cllrs Barry Fishman, Robin Griffin and Graham Price and Plymouth University students studying for a Public Services Degree, will be on Fore Street, Tesco and Morrisons in Kingsbridge and on Fore Street in Salcombe.

They will be finding out how safe people feel in the towns and whether there are any problems they would like to bring to their attention.

Last year, they ran the same ‘Have Your Say’ session last year and received 164 responses, with people mentioning having more of a police presence on the street, parking issues, street lighting and speeding.

Kingsbridge Police have also asked people to contact them via their Facebook page with the same survey, so if you don’t spot them out and about, you can answer the same questions via their messages.

‘Historically, the UK police, along with Canadian and Australia police, are the only forces to “police by consent”, explained Sgt Dave Green at the briefing before the survey, ‘the model relies on people supporting us.

‘There are 65 million people in the UK, and only around 100,000 police officers. If the entire population of the UK decided to stop obeying all laws, there is nothing we could do to stop them. We rely on the vast majority of people being law abiding and supporting what we do.

‘This “Have Your Say” survey is an extension of that model and supports us policing by content.’

Sgt Green also explained that the councillors from Kingsbridge Town Council are there to pick up on suggestions by members of the public that aren’t police matters, but more council matters.

The officers, councillors and students will be on the streets until 3.30pm.