SEDGEMOOR has been selected as one of five national pilot projects to help combat the threat of serious and organised crime, which costs the UK £37bn each year.

In addition to the Sedgemoor-based project, pilot schemes are running in Merseyside, West Yorkshire, Sussex and Gwent as part of the Home Office-backed initiative.

The South West pilot scheme - known as Project Sicga - is a collaborative project bringing together Sedgemoor District Council and Avon and Somerset Police, and building on the success of the Bridgwater Together Team.

The new project will aim to cover a wide spectrum, highlighting and tackling the impact of organised drug networks known as county lines, through to working with health partners to combat the illicit sale of cigarettes and alcohol, and reviewing the impact of rural crime.

The five pilot schemes have been chosen to look at threats emerging in different geographical locations such as rural, coastal and urban environments.

Sedgemoor was selected for its rural location which throws up its own specific challenges, with the pilot especially focusing on rural crime, fraud, child exploitation, modern slavery and county lines drug dealing.

The new SOC Community Co-ordinator is Amy Hurst, who has been appointed to oversee the project which will run initially until March of next year.

She was joined by Det Supt Carolyn Belafonte at the Bridgwater South Together Team hub in Rhode Lane to discuss the new pilot scheme and what it might bring to Sedgemoor.

She said: "This is an exciting and challenging project which we hope will change people's lives for the better.

"My role is to bring various partner agencies and individuals together so that vulnerable victims can be identified and helped.

"By highlighting these threats we hope to disrupt serious and organised crime, and support and release young people who may have been innocently drawn or coaxed into crime."

Det Supt Belafonte said: "I have seen the impact serious and organised crime has on a community and it is awful to see.

"We have come across some sad stories of vulnerable people who have their homes taken over by drug dealers from cities to be used as a base for drug dealing on behalf of a group.

"We know this has been happening in Bridgwater and Taunton, but with the help of the community we can tackle it."

One of the key aims of the pilot will be to try and build up 'community resilience', and the team will go about this through work in local schools and encouraging people in the community to share information through a safe space.

"People may see something slightly unusual and not think too much of it - such as a group of people all being picked up and dropped off at an odd time," Ms Hurst said.

"This could be a key bit of information for us and could potentially expose a case of modern slavery.

"There is a lot of this sort of crime that remains hidden and we hope the pilot scheme will help people have confidence to talk to members of the Together Team and police.

Det Supt Belafonte said it would be hard to judge the success of the scheme over a short period, but hoped further funding would be granted to extend the pilot for a further year and hopefully longer.

"It will not be straightforward to access the 'success' of the scheme, obviously from a police point of view we want to see a reduction in violent crime and drug dealing, but the pilot includes many aspects that are less tangible, such as confidence-building within the community."