National research has revealed that Crawley is one of only a few town centres in the UK that has seen a rise in footfall over the last year. Crawley saw a 0.5% increase in footfall in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the previous year, ranking it fifth nationally. Several redevelopment projects in Crawley, including a shopping centre refurbishment and new retailers and restaurants, may be contributing to the rise in footfall bucking the national downward trend.

1. RGG-E02-S2 Wednesday, April 27, 2016 13
News
NATIONAL research has
revealed Crawley is one of only a
few town centres in the UK
which has had a rise in shopping
footfall in the last year.
The town has been named as
one of the best performing town
centres in the country by
analysts who study the number
of people visiting high streets
and shopping centres.
Retail Traffic Index figures
published by Ipsos Retail
Performance show for the UK as
a whole the number of people
heading out of their homes to
shop was down 0.9 per cent in
the first three months of 2016
compared to the same period in
2015.
Crawley bucks the trend and is
one of only seven retail centres
where footfall has improved.
Shops in the town saw a 0.5
per cent increase in January to
March 2016 compared to the first
quarter last year, ranking
Crawley fifth in the UK.
While Ipsos did not investigate
the reasons for the changes, in
recent years County Mall
shopping centre has undergone a
£5 million transformation with
new retailers moving in.
Revamped
The former Sussex House car
park site on the High Street has
been revamped with restaurant
Turtle Bay, supermarket
Morrisons, a Travelodge hotel
and Creams dessert chain all
moving in.
Queens Square has had
Starbucks move in and the
former Body Shop building is
being refurbished to
accommodate Decathlon.
Cabinet member for planning
and economic development,
councillor Peter Smith, said:
“There's a long way still to go
but our strategy is finally
moving things forward and the
recent footfall figures highlight
the progress Labour is making
on town centre regeneration.”
Cllr Smith added the council is
holding discussions to improve
Station Way and Friary Way and
that work is also underway to
find other ways the Town Hall
can be better used.
Newcastle upon Tyne was the
worst performer, with shopper
numbers down 9.95 per cent
while Ashford, in Kent, was the
best-performing with a 1.6 per
cent rise.
Town centre
bucking the
trend when
it comes to
footfall rise
Nighttime
patrol with
dedicated
response
officersLAST Friday night reporter Thomas Mackintosh
was invited out on patrol with the Crawley Police
Response Team, to see what it is really like to
be a police officer in the town on a busy night.
HAVING been warned that I could
be abandoned at any time during
my shift – should the officers be
called to a particularly serious
incident – my night was eventful
and varied from start to finish.
I was sent out with PC Katie
Breeds and PC Mark Robinson,
part of a team of seven who police
Crawley on a Friday night.
During my shift from 5pm on
Friday night until 4am on Sat-
urday morning, I would witness
the tragic discovery of a dead
body, three arrests, a child being
reported missing, a pursuit, an
assault and the inevitable paper-
work that came with such a busy
shift.
Inform
The patrol began by heading
over to Tilgate to inform the next
of kin that a family member had
died. Awkwardly the person they
were informing also had a war-
rant out for his arrest for failing
to attend court.
Hearing the news, the shock on
the face of the family was clear,
but the amount of co-operation
that the man showed in the cir-
cumstances as he was arrested
was just as noticeable. He acknow-
ledged that the police had a job to
do, and willingly accompanied us
back to Crawley Police Station.
Over the next hour the man
would be put through the police
custody process, and be placed
into the cells, with the officers
returning to their desks to fill out
the paperwork.
Back on patrol I was told to
expect the unexpected. This was
about to become apparent.
Driving along Horsham Road,
PC Robinson was acting on a
hunch that a car might not have
insurance. With the blues and
twos on he began to pursue this
car towards Bewbush.
However, as he approached a
roundabout, we came up behind a
moped. Instead of moving out of
the way, the rider decided to
mount the central reservation
and cut across the other side of the
dual-carriageway and onto Sul-
livan Drive.
In the blink of an eye something
innocuous became a pursuit as
the moped, which had a Domino’s
pizza box on the back, made off
down Sullivan Drive before driv-
ing across the footbridge that goes
over Spruce Hill Brook and speed-
ing off into a field towards Ifield.
Children in the nearby play
area looked on in amazement as
PC Robinson started to pursue the
50cc moped on foot but, inevitably,
he could not catch the vehicle.
As the dust settled on the pur-
suit PC Robinson told me: “It is
things like that which seemingly
start out as nothing and then spir-
al into something much more
alarming.”
Pondering what happened to
the rider I didn’t have much time
to think before we were being
called to the scene of a major
incident in the town centre.
Acting on reports that a man
had been found dead in public
toilets in Ifield Road, West Green
we sped off to the scene, where
other police officers had begun
cordoning off the road between
Pegler Way and the High Street.
As a reporter I am used to being
on the other side of the police
cordon trying to find out what is
going on, but to be at the epicentre
of a situation was an eye-opener.
Each officer knew exactly what
to do, whether it was placing cor-
dons, ushering people away from
the public toilets, taking state-
ments from eyewitnesses or
assisting paramedics with CPR.
Detecting
An hour either side of midnight
was fairly quiet by comparison,
but I got to see that policing isn’t
all about detecting and prevent-
ing crime.
It was obvious that the policing
team are a tight-knit group who
know when to have a laugh and
when to be serious while all the
time watching each other’s backs
if something kicked off.
One incident encapsulated all
of this. After being called to
reports of a disturbance in Broad-
field, a man tried to swing a punch
at PC Breeds.
Within the blink of an eye PC
Robinson was by his partner’s
side, restraining the man and
requesting back up. A glance over
my shoulder and the back-up was
just pulling into the road. Out
came a cluster of officers from a
van and another car to take the
male into custody.
As one of the officers used their
pepper spray on him, PC Breeds
caught some in her eye. Once the
incident had been dealt with she
endured some friendly banter
about it from her colleagues who
joked she may have earned herself
a ‘duvet day’ to recover.
It was a first-hand experience of
the dangers that the police
officers face on the frontline.
As I was dropped off outside the
station once the shift finished I
was finally able to gather some
thoughts.
Putting everything into per-
spective the unshakeable devo-
tion that PC Breeds and PC
Robinson have for their job is
admirable, a real advert and cred-
it to the work that Crawley Police
officers do on a daily basis, des-
pite limited resources.
No matter what problems the
officers were faced with, they
always dealt with them profes-
sionally with the only unsolved
mystery from the night being
what flavours of pizza had been on
that moped.
POLICE are still searching for a
reckless rider who drove a
moped dangerously through
Bewbush on Friday night.
PC Katie Breeds and PC Mark
Robinson, while out on patrol
with our reporter in tow,
pursued a moped down Sullivan
Drive at about 7.55pm.
This was after the rider
mounted the central reservation
and cut across the dual-
carriageway in Horsham Road
and onto Sullivan Drive.
The moped rode along
Sullivan Drive before going
across the footbridge that goes
over Spruce Hill Brook and sped
off into Bewbush West Playing
Field towards Ifield.
The rider was wearing a white
helmet and the moped is believed
to have had a Domino’s pizza box
on the back.
I Anyone who saw anything
suspicious in the area on Friday
evening can email 101@
sussex.pnn.police.uk or
alternatively call 101 quoting
reference 1311 of April 22.
Do you know moped rider?
KEEPING US SAFE: Crawley Police put themselves in danger and face incredibly tough situations Kevin Shaw
DEDICATED: PC Katie Breeds, with a young recruit TOUGH JOB: PC Mark Robinson
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