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Christian volunteers take to the streets
A TEAM of Christian volunteers will be mingling with drinkers in Lancaster city centre on a regular basis, after training as street pastors to support local police officers and offer help and advice.
The team hope to play a part in cutting down drink-related violence and anti-social behaviour.
The scheme is being launched on Friday, September 6 after a special commissioning service attended by local dignitaries such as the Mayor of Lancaster, Coun Keith Budden.
The street pastors scheme has received widespread praise in other areas of the country and is backed by the head of local police, Ch Supt Tim Jacques.
He said: "The street pastors are non-confrontational and will talk to people who are in distress to help give them some reassurance.
"They will be a calming presence in the town and help us to achieve our priority of reducing town centre anti-social behaviour and violence.
"We have looked at the influence they have had in other areas and it shows they have an impact in reducing town centre trouble. I am very grateful for their support and I am looking forward to working alongside them."
Local street pastors' co-ordinator, Steve Bland said: "We'll offer practical assistance, offering any help where needed like finding a taxi or helping people who have had too much to drink or been injured in some way.
"We're not the police but we might be able to help calm a situation down where a police uniform might draw a crowd.
"If appropriate, we might offer to pray with them there and then, or they can write a request down for us to pray for later.
"But the aim isn't to preach at anyone.
"The national statistics show that it makes the streets safer.
"It's all about building relationships and getting alongside people. We'll be talking to pub landlords and nightclub managers, and door staff on the night."
The Ascension Trust, a Christian organisation, started the street pastors scheme in 1993 to help combat the growing amount of anti-social behaviour on our streets.
It now teams in other cities including Leicester, Wrexham and Halifax and they are continuing to grow.
The street pastors in Lancaster will work in uniformed groups of four on Friday nights and will be patrolling from 10.30pm to 2.30am, talking to people in bars and nightclubs.
They are hoping to recruit more volunteers in the future to be able to patrol on other nights as well.
* Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer can e-mail Steve at lancaster@streetpastors.org.uk.
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