We patrolled seven times during December 2021 and January 2022. We patrolled on a very wet Christmas Eve but were unable to patrol on New Year’s Eve.

Christmas Eve was busy in Wantage but mostly peaceful and good-natured. We chatted to lots of people including taxi drivers and door staff. Our team spotted that some people were not using the front door to access one of the night-time venues and so we checked with door staff to see if they were aware. They weren’t aware of the problem and sorted it out immediately.

We found a man in some distress in the doorway of a shop and asked if he was okay and if there was anything we could do to help. The man asked us to leave him alone, so we moved away and loitered nearby. A few minutes later the man got in to a taxi and left town.

Right at the end of our patrol a bottle was thrown in the street so we cleared up the broken glass before finishing our patrol.

In January we met a group of lads who were messing about with Sainsbury’s trolleys. We stopped to chat, gave them lollies and distracted them from their mischief. After a few minutes the group moved on. We also distracted a group of onlookers who were getting excited by the antics of a man attempting to gain entry to one of the night-time venues. Again, we used our lollies to help us get chatting and divert their attention elsewhere.

The Police alerted us to groups of young people gathering around Wantage Parish Church, especially while there was scaffolding present at the back of the church. Street Pastor teams have been circling the church on their route around town but haven’t found any young people there yet.