Overall crime rates in the Vale and Cardiff have decreased, Inspector Mark Henderson, local policing inspector for Barry, reported to town councillors last night.

Inspector Henderson also reported, however, that anti-social behaviour rates have increased due to breaches of Covid regulations.

He referred to an increase in visitors to local beauty spots such as Barry Island and Porthkerry Park as one of the challenges during the pandemic.

"During Covid we've seen a 30% reduction in all crime," he said.

"We have seen an increase in anti-social behaviour which is mostly linked to breaches of Covid regulations.

"So, while the crime demand has gone down, anti-social behaviour has increased."

Inspector Henderson said that "at least a few hundred" fines were issued to Covid rule-breakers.

"We initially were encouraged to engage and explain around the Covid rules and regulations, which we did," he said.

"Especially round Barry Island last summer, we had coach-loads of people coming from Birmingham for example, while England and Wales were in lockdown.

"Linked to Covid is the issue we've had with the coastline and the parks. Because of people staying at home or staying local, we've seen a massive increase of people going to Barry Island and the local parks like Porthkerry. That's been a challenge to police.

"We are here to keep the people of Barry safe, so we had to deal with people who shouldn't have been here, that have come from out the area, Cardiff, Newport, the Valleys for example, to drink alcohol and behave in an antisocial manner in our local areas.

"We've been able to dedicate patrols and officers to that.

"So, we saw a lot of challenges through Covid, but hopefully we're on the other side of that with the regulations being loosened."

Inspector Henderson also said that the merger of the Vale Police with Cardiff had improved their services.

"We've seen a lot of advantages for Barry with the merger," he said.

"We're getting the support that we didn't have when we were partnered with Bridgend because of the geographical separation.

"We've got 70 police officers and 26 PCSOs working in Barry and the Vale, so that's quite a positive there.

"We've seen a lot more attention from the dedicated drugs teams, the public protection department, so I think the service we're now giving to the people of Barry has improved."