Congleton residents have laid out their policing priorities.

Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner Dan Price recently staged a citizens' assembly, bringing together 35 people from across the Congleton area – who were exactly representative of the local population - to talk about what policing looks like in their area.

During the meeting, the community representatives voted for what they thought was most important priority for their local area.

The main priorities were deemed to be tackling violence against women and girls, drugs and anti-social behaviour, as well as cybercrime. 

Mr Price said: "Congleton citizens' assembly offered a powerful space for discussion with a true cross-section of the community - young and old, all backgrounds, with different views and different levels of trust in the police.

"Seeing people rethink long‑held views after hearing new stories and facts has been remarkable. That's democracy in motion. It's alive, evolving and genuinely people‑powered."

Across three face-to-face workshops, lasting 12 hours in total, the group heard from experts in policing, prevention and victim support.

Residents were able to ask questions, bust myths, challenge views and shared their ideas.

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Other policing priorities that the Congleton group discussed and voted on included:

• Domestic abuse
• Hate crime
• Road safety

 Conclusions from the workshops are shared with Cheshire Police so that the constabulary can include them in their operational plans for local neighbourhood policing.

Mr Price is the first Police and Crime Commissioner in the country to hold citizens' assemblies to form local policing priorities.

He is aiming to have a citizens' assembly in each of Cheshire Constabulary's nine local policing units.

The first one was held in Crewe at the end of 2024, the Runcorn and Widnes ones were held in the summer of 2025, with Macclesfield in the Autumn of last year and then Congleton in February and March this year.

Northwich is set to be the next area visited, with planning currently underway.