[Library shot]
As l sometimes politely remind people, this is a blog and l am not a local newspaper. Which means l won’t publish every press release that comes my way from official bodies and those in public office.
However, this release from our local Bath MP caught my eye because l recently had been talking to a local shopkeeper about how shoplifting was eating into their profits.
According to Wera Hobhouse’s release, Bath has seen the fastest increase in shoplifting in the last year. Shoplifting in the city has rocketed by 83% since September 2023, rising faster than anywhere else in the country and making it the eighth-worst locality in England in absolute terms.
Now she has echoed the calls of local shopkeepers in Bath and asked the Minister for Crime, Dame Diana Johnson, to reassure business owners by making police more visible on the city’s streets.
Dame Diana Johnson firmly agreed with Mrs Hobhouse that the sharp increase in shoplifting was unacceptable and said that the Labour government’s commitment to a neighbourhood policing model would help to tackle this issue by creating a stronger police presence in Bath.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, said:
“We are so lucky that Bath is home to such a thriving hub for shopping – it’s one of the many reasons that our city attracts tourists from all over the globe.
“But local business owners and customers in our community need assurance that our streets are crime-free. To learn that Bath has seen the fastest increase in shoplifting offences in the last year was deeply shocking.
“That’s why I pushed the government today to urgently crack down on this troubling trend by ensuring the police are visible on our streets.”
