A PLUS point of the pandemic has been better partnership working at senior level in Dorset according to the county’s police and crime commissioner.

Martyn Underhill says he now had regular conversations with senior leaders at Dorset Council and the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, as well as with other partners.

“That never happened before Covid and I now see partnership working strengthening as a result of Covid,” he told the police and crime panel.

But his chief executive, Simon Bullock,  said that in other areas there had been a reduction in partnership working as police officers has been directed by the Government to concentrate on anti-social behaviour around compliance with Covid rules.

He said that, on the plus point, there had been little anti-social behaviour in the evenings and early hours because of lockdown rules.

Mr Underhill said that for the BCP area work was continuing with the council to improve the response to town centre Covid breaches with extra council staff, some additional police officers and the possibility of switching some PCSOs to help as well.

Said Cllr Les Fry: “It’s just a shame that Dorset Police has got to deal with the Covid breaches and people can’t follow the guidelines, because that’s a distraction from the proper policing function…if people behaved themselves we wouldn’t have that problem,” he said.

Mr Underhill said that all anti-social behaviour reports over the past year had gone up by 12-14 per cent, but if Covid-related incidents were taken out, it had actually declined, although the lockdowns and lack of night time economy partially explained the underlying reduction.