COUNCILLORS on Anglesey will write to the Home Office in a bid to secure more funding to help police in the ongoing fight against organised and violent crime.

A meeting of the Partnerships and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee heard evidence from the Community Safety Delivery Manager for Gwynedd and Anglesey, who revealed the impact issues such as drugs and violence are having on rural areas such as north west Wales.

According to North Wales Police, one of the most significant challenges to hit the region over recent years has been the “county lines” agenda of organised drug gangs.

Catherine Roberts told members of the “significant threat” of drug gangs coming from the Manchester and Merseyside areas and establishing drug dealing operations in the region.

To meet the challenge head on, a two county organised crime gangs group has been set up, led by North Wale Police, in a bid to stop children and vulnerable adults from being groomed to carry drugs by dealers exploiting vulnerable people to expand their criminal enterprises across the country.

She said: “Following the national trends, we know that some types of offences are on the up, but I must emphasise that we continue to live in one of the safest areas in Britain.

“But there are examples of county lines having influenced local young people and we know the people running these drug operations are not afraid to use violence.“We know of instances where violence has been used and someone has been stabbed on Anglesey.

“We’re aware of the existence of such gangs in Holyhead and Bangor, and work is ongoing to tackle this.

“The proliferation of such gangs is on the rise across both counties but we are working to tackle this problem which is an issue across the UK by now.”

Noting that increase in hate crime has already been recorded locally over the past year, she stated her belief that this was down to more people being willing to report such incidents.

But concerns over the increase of crimes of a cyber nature and child exploitation led to calls from one former police officer for more funding to be made available for North Wales Police and other forces across the country.

Cllr John Griffith said: “The job has changed dramatically since the time I was patrolling the streets of Pwllheli 30 years ago.“From looking at these figures, we can see that certain types of crime are on the rise while others, such ar burglary, have seen a small decrease.

“Due to recent legislation we are seeing officers with more and more paperwork.

“They are being buried under such work and with finances being what they are, the number of officers now on the streets doesn’t do justice for the people of north Wales.

“I feel we should write to the Home Office to put on some pressure as things will only get worse unless our police forces are given more money.“They simply can’t cope with the workloads as things are.”

Cllr Griffith’ motion was unanimously passed by members, with a letter in the committee chair’s name – Cllr Gwilym O Jones – to be sent to the Home Office.

In March, there were the equivalent of 1,490 full-time officers in North Wales – an increase of 49 on March 2017.

But more widely, more than 700 officers were lost across England and Wales’ 43 police forces over the preceeding 12 months.

The latest figures show an 11% rise in recorded crime across England and Wales, and a 19% increase in violent crimes.

In North Wales, recorded crime was up by 28% while violent crime saw a 42% increase.