I ALWAYS try to do as much festive shopping as I can locally, (usually dashing into shops between meetings), but it is so important to support our local retailers.

They work hard to make our towns look attractive at this time of year, from St James’ independent quarter to Bath Place and Castle Green in Taunton and over to the main thoroughfare in Wellington.

I visited many local retailers on 'Small Business Saturday’ drawing attention to the benefits they bring to our high streets.

Every pound spent at our local businesses is an investment in our community.

At this time of year, it is more vital than ever to ensure our traders can operate safely.

With this in mind, I held my second anti-social behaviour forum recently following on from the inaugural session in September which was triggered by a spate of unacceptable antisocial activity during the summer.

It is clear that the best way to tackle such behaviour is through partnership working - between those affected, the community police, and the council.

Further, a range of new measures in the Government’s recently announced Criminal Justice Bill will give local authorities the powers and tools they need to deal with this more effectively.

In the meantime, I urge anyone experiencing an incident to ensure that they report it to the police so that the data is captured.

Retailers made it clear that the reporting system needs to be straightforward and quick and that they expect the police to respond.

I was pleased to hear from Avon and Somerset Police community officers that there are now more police officers on the streets here, and more have been recruited thanks to government funding and we ought to see that starting to make a difference.

It transpires that some of those allegedly responsible for much of the irresponsible behaviour we have witnessed locally regrettably include a youth element, with a number of young women involved.

At the meeting, I agreed to engage with our hardworking local headteachers and other youth leaders to draw this to their attention with a view to influencing behaviour.

More widely, the Taunton Pub Watch model (which won an award recently), is used by many local pubs and the hospitality trade to inform one another of anti-social behaviour activities in the town and it is working well, and as a result of our recent forum this model will be explored with a view to setting up a similar system for retail outlets.

I also proposed exploring the possibility of setting up a Business Crime Reduction Partnership with the Southwest Business Crime Centre and I have invited Taunton Town Council to join me in a meeting with them and I will report back.

As we head to the end of the year there are some hearty and well-deserved congratulations to impart: firstly, to the team at the Chelston-based Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance who were recognised nationally at this year’s Air Ambulance Awards of Excellence.

And also, I’d like to express a massive well done and thanks to Somerset cricketer Tom Abell for his service to the county as a long-standing captain of Somerset County Cricket Club.

He's made the decision to step down from his leadership role and should be congratulated on his achievements.

I was especially moved to hear him say that winning the London One Day Cup in 2019 at Lords was a major highlight for him.

My wonderful late husband Charles Clark was club chair at that time, and it was one of his proudest achievements too, the players, including Tom, wheeled him around the ground in his wheelchair and we will never forget it.

Just a note on the weather, do be prepared in case there are more storms on the horizon; we have experienced some heavy rain recently with the ground remaining saturated and river levels high.

If you haven't already done so, do sign up to receive flood warnings at www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warning.

Finally, with this being my last fortnightly column before Christmas I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone across Taunton Deane all the very best of wishes for Christmas.

The festive period is a special time of year for many of us to spend time with loved ones and reflect on the past year.

However, I know it can also be a difficult time of year for some, if you need any assistance please don’t hesitate to get in touch with my office by emailing rebecca.pow.mp@parliament.uk or calling 01823 443062.