VOLUNTEER policemen and women will play a big part in a bid to strengthen the ‘thin blue line’ in Ludlow and south Shropshire.

Ludlow was rocked in 2015 by a tsunami of crime in 2015 with many town centre shops and businesses targeted.

The town has also experienced serious problems with vandalism and anti-social behaviour including people urinating through town centre letter boxes after late night drinking.

In an exclusive interview with the Advertiser, Police and Crime Commissioner Bill Longmore has said that a recruitment drive to get more Special Constables in uniform will be an important weapon in the armoury of the force.

The 77-year-old outgoing Police and Crime Commissioner said that policing in Ludlow and rural south Shropshire is under huge pressure as a result of austerity.

But he said that a policy of not recruiting officers as a way of saving money had been stopped.

“When austerity started the immediate reaction was to stop recruitment and with up to 100 offers leaving the force each year that created a huge problem,” said Bill Longmore.

“We have stopped this and now the force is returning to the strength that we had when the cuts started.”

But he said that with a big geographic area to police the force still faced resource issues and a new approach to volunteer policing is part of the plan to ease pressures on the regular force.

This will involve the use of Special Constables who are volunteers but receive full training and have the same powers as a salaried policeman or woman.

“In the past there has been a tendency for Special Constables to be younger people who use it as a route into the force,” added Bill Longmore.

“I would like to see more local people who know the patch where they live and want to serve the local community.”

He said that Special Constables are ideal to be brought in to support regular officers at busy times.

“There are many very special challenges to policing especially in rural areas like Ludlow and the blue line is pretty thin,” Bill Longmore added.

“In rural areas the population may be small but the number of people can be massively increased during the tourist season at when there are special events like agricultural shows.”

He said that Ludlow was a town where there had been particular problems and the Police Station that had been mothballed is now being utilised as a base for officers.

“Ludlow is a very attractive historic market town and in the summer attracts huge numbers of visitors and this can put pressures on the police,” added Bill Longmore.

He said that events like the Ludlow Food Festival every September could bring 20,000 people in the town over just one weekend.

The Police and Crime Commissioner said that other issues such as cutting back in spending on youth services are also having a knock-on effect and putting pressures on the police force.

Bill Longmore said this is why he had spent part of a pot of money he has available on helping the Ludlow Boxing Club.