LEISURE use of Gloucester Park will be improved in the coming weeks thanks to a new initiative being launched this week by Gloucestershire Police.

Following several community engagements by the Police and community groups as well as local businesses and charities, park users have reflected concerns such as Anti-Social Behaviour, general crime and their personal safety when using the park.

The Gloucester City Community team are addressing this with several initiatives, among them the launch of Operation Ariadne to make the park a more enjoyable and pleasant place.

Running for the next two weeks, ‘Ariadne’ has been triggered on a short term basis , comprising proactive Police patrols to reduce lack of confidence among parker users as to their personal safety, dissatisfaction with levels of littering, alcohol misuse and drug abuse, all of which have been spoiling their leisure use of the park.

To respond to these issues on a longer term basis the Constabulary is working in close partnership with the City Council and other agencies, to improve public perceptions of the park as a safe place to be.

This will include making best use of the new anti-social behaviour powers available to police under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 which encourages partnership working between the Council and the Police.

But in the meantime, Ariadne will be a short term, maximum-visibility initiative to make the first moves towards better confidence in the Park and surrounding streets.

It will provide invaluable data about the types of people using or misusing the park, which parts of it they frequent and the activities they are engaging in.

Police will be looking for evidence such as litter spots, discarded drinks containers and general suspicious or criminal behaviour.

As well as sending a positive message to the public about police determination to make Gloucester a safer place, the patrols – mostly being completed by the PCSO’s and Special Constables - will help inform a longer term strategy to maintain law and order and promote safe park use.

PC Neal Paddock, Gloucester City Community Beat Officer, said: “Gloucester Park is a large place, a vital green amenity in the busy city centre and the public should feel able to feel safe when using it.

"It represents an important family and community asset with enormous potential, whether for children enjoying the playground, families having a picnic, or youngsters kicking a ball around.

"For many people, it is an important short cut to places of work, schools and other venues and they have the right to feel safe using it.

"As ever, it is a small minority of antisocial offenders who are spoiling it for the majority, and we are determined to put that to rights, working with our City Council partners.

"The City Community Teams are working hard to turn around any negative perception and we welcome input from the public to enable effective and long-lasting solutions.

"Changing public perception is a challenging, long term prospect but we all want people to be happy when using the park.

"Operation Ariadne is our start in achieving this, so if you see our officers out and about in the park please don’t hesitate to stop and have a chat.”