THE BROMSGROVE Street Pastors scheme has celebrated its two-year anniversary with a special commissioning service at Ye Olde Black Cross on September 6.
During the commemoration, Revd Paul Lewis, the chairman of Bromsgrove Street Pastors, thanked the police and pub landlords for the way they had ‘taken the pastors to their hearts’.
And the project managed to boost its ranks when ten new pastors were commissioned at the service.
Bromsgrove Street Pastors, which was set up in 2012, is run by volunteers from Churches Together in Bromsgrove and now has 40 volunteers in its team.
They patrol Bromsgrove town centre on Friday nights and on Sundays during bank holiday weekends.
On an average night, the team of four street pastors patrol between 9.30pm and 4am and, during that time, talk to more than 100 people, give out 50 lollipops, five bottles of water and six pairs of flip-flops.
Last February, the introduction of street pastors was seen to be helping reduce ‘night time economy crime’, such as assaults, public order offences, criminal damage and sexual offences by nine per cent between July and December 2012, compared with the same time in 2011.
For more, search for Bromsgrove Street Pastors on Facebook.
