THE public are set to have their chance to quiz a police chief over serious antisocial behaviour in Oswestry is being tackled.

Oswestry Town Council will to invite John Campion, West Mercia Police police and crime commissioner, to a public meeting to answer concerns over police resourcing for Oswestry.

Councillor John Price called for the meeting after "several serious incidents affecting public safety in Oswestry".

Cllr Price told that the finances and General Purposes Committee on Monday that the meeting should be held to "address the significant public concern over serious and ongoing incidents that threaten both public order and safety on a day to day basis" and to "seek answers from the police commissioner on how these concerns are being addressed".

Cllr Peter Cherrington suggested that Chief Superintendent Kevin Purcell be invited to the meeting, as "he seems to me to have more bullets in his gun than the PCC, who seems to be a waste of time as far as I'm concerned."

Cllr Price said that he wanted to "bring John Campion to account" as he oversees the police. He did not blame the police for a lack of resources, adding that they "do an incredible job without them".

Cllr Martin Coppock said that he had seen a lot of discussion on social media about antisocial behaviour, with people saying they were "victims of this sort of thing" but not reporting it.

"It's obviously a serious issue that people are very concerned about and I definitely support this motion," he added.

Cllr Jay Moore said that the police "do a great job with limited resources" added that a lot of the problems were youth-based and pointed to the lack of services for young people in the town.

"To me these problems are indicative of the failures of our youth services," he said.

While Cllr Duncan Kerr agreed with the motion, he asked if Shropshire Council could be asked to invite Mr Campion to a Community Safety Partnership meeting, which was the statutory framework and would "add weight" to the to the motion.

But several members disagreed and said that the issue should be focused on Oswestry, including Cllr Price.

"This is Oswestry, my home town. Many of these children I know. I don't want to make them targets for anybody. I just think this could be addressed locally," he said.

Cllr Kerr's amendment was defeated by 10 votes to six, and the original motion was carried unanimously.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said “I am reassured that the police in Oswestry are taking a robust approach to deal with some short lived, sporadic anti-social behaviour incidents. I have already attended a Town Council meeting earlier in the year, where many of the issues raised were addressed, and I am continually reassured that they are making best use of resources, with high visibility patrols and offenders identified and being dealt with appropriately.

It is understood that suspects have been identified and action is being taken at an operational level in relation to a number of incidents.

Mr Campion said: "While I would welcome any invite to engage with communities, it is important this is done is a constructive way, looking at the facts – it is important to recognise that this is a small number of low level incidents, and that Oswestry remains a safe place to live.”