POLICE recorded 25 acts of “violence against the person” within Wellington town centre in November – but officers have tried to allay fears.

It was the largest number of crime type recorded during the month with the next highest being 16 acts of theft.

The statistics were revealed at Wellington Town Council’s meeting on Monday (Dec 3) and prompted the Deputy Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, to raise the issue with the police.

PCSO Victoria Henderson admitted that the statistic of 25 acts of “violence against the person” stood out.

“We know this looks terrible when you see it,” she said. “But we haven’t got a big violence problem here.”

She explained that “violence against the person” was a wide-reaching category of crime which included very minor incidents and illustrated this by gently pushing Cllr Marcus Barr, who was sat next to her at the meeting, on the arm.

“That could be classed as violence against the person,” she said.

Cllr Barr said: “Ouch!”