Saturday night saw me on patrol with Derby’s Street Pastors. The shift which lasted from 10pm to 4am left me exposed to the full impact of Derby’s weekend party culture. I love to watch people in the City have a good time and there are definitely a few people that get it wrong, that take it too far and get themselves in trouble. So it was good to be there to offer them help. But the real message I took away was just how fun-loving and friendly the vast majority of this City’s party people are.
The street pastors are amazing. Giving up your time to help people who are being sick, who are potentially violent or who are on floods of tears is a true act of love and compassion. They deserve medals.
However, what really impressed me was the place they have within our tight knit community. The really key thing that I’d like to do more to support if I became one of the City’s MPs is support the cooperation between the ‘nightlife community’. The police lead, but door staff, taxi marshals, food outlets and the street pastors all cooperate to make sure people who come into the City to have a good time can do so safely and securely. I think working together is impressive, important and something we could do with seeing more of.
So I had a good time and learnt a lot but was I any good? Alasdair Kay who set-up street pastors in Derby and looked after me on my first shift said this, “Well, like me, Jack’s a former military man so he wasn’t at all phased by the odd drunken loud-mouth. I think that confidence is important and gave him a chance to reach out to people to show real care and compassion. I hope he’ll come out with us again soon.”
Having been exposed to the full onslaught of City night life once, I’m itching to do it again. It’s a great chance to be a part of the community and a really practical way to contribute to our City. What’s more, I’ve been on the other side of the fence a few times and no doubt it won’t be long before I’m one of the crowd wandering through the streets of the City at the early hours. When I’m next there I’ll look out for the Street Pastors and be sure to thank them for their work. I hope others will too.
To see how the Derby Evening Telegraph covered this click on this link: http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Experience-streetlife-prospective-Tory-MP/article-1224236-detail/article.html
