Scout Leader Helps Shape Bath Policing!

A young Scout Leader and an up-and-coming photographer is using his leadership and life skills to help shape policing across the neighbourhoods of Bath.

Ben W has been a member of the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) for police in the city for a year. It puts him in prime position to help influence relations between police in Avon and Somerset and its diverse communities.

“I joined to get a deeper interest in what policing in Bath is all about,” said the 21-year-old, a local Scout leader and photography graduate from Bath Spa University.

“Policing goes on in the background of all our lives. For most of us it’s all about policing our neighbourhoods and it affects us all more closely than us just dialling 999. I realised, being the age I am, that I could add to the demographic, as a younger member of the community.

“In my first meeting I spoke about social media and wasn’t expecting very much from it but the Chief Inspector really listened to me and said he would take some of things I said on board. I did wonder how much influence a then 21-year-old might have but there is a demographic out there that wants to be heard.”

The group brings together volunteers from communities across Bath and North East Somerset. The members from Bath come from different walks of life, backgrounds and experiences and act as ‘critical friends’ to the local Police helping them and appraising procedure to improve quality of policing within BANES.

They meet four times a year in the Bath Police Station. But members are often invited at other times to offer their views on matters that impact the community. There are illustrated talks from guest speakers on modern policing as well as the chance to witness police in action on exercises run for front line officers.

Ben is from Coventry but decided to stay in Bath after his graduation last summer. He enjoys the city’s artistic environment and uses the excellent transport links to the wider art communities in Bristol and London.

A middle management position with a large outdoor clothing retailer mirrors his leadership role with the Scouts, who he joined as a Beaver ten years ago. “Scouting was something which wasn’t football,” he explained.

“I’ve always had an interest in the outdoors and I thought, rightly, that Scouting would make me a better all-round person. I love the ethos and the development of skills for life. Scout leaders have been influential in my development and I want to pass that on to other people. There’s a real sense of belonging in the Scouts, an unconditional friendship.”

He was inspired to develop his Scouting during the 2019 World Jamboree in the USA and he has taken on leadership roles during recent Scout exercises in Exmoor and on Guernsey.

Ben’s interest in the outdoors extends to his photography, specialising in environmental landscapes. Appalled by the millions of hours of sewage escaping into rivers every year he began looking at the effects of storm overflows – “beautiful landscapes,” as he calls rivers “with a dark underflow”.

He has made a detailed study of the effects of overflows on the River Irwell in Greater Manchester and has extended that work to the River Wye. He plans to package up much of his photographic work for publication.

Meanwhile his work on the Group continues: “Students make up such a large part of Bath and they aren’t very well represented,” he said. “There’s probably great insight to be had from representatives of the city’s religious communities too but it is the students who experience much more of the city. It would be good to see other areas of the community engaging with the Group.”

Bath is preparing for a new, permanent police station in the next 18 months. Ben has already suggested that reception and front-of-house areas of the new station should include examples of local art and photography to give its walls a fresh, welcoming look.

For more information on joining Scouts or the Bath Police IAG contact join@bathscouts.org