STREET pastors will patrol anti-social behaviour hotspots in the town centre on Friday nights, starting later this month.

After around 18 months of planning and a year later than originally intended to start, volunteers from churches across St Helens have now completed the required training and the first patrol will take place on December 23.

Initially the street pastors - in branded navy blue caps, polo shirts and jackets - will be on patrol, providing a “passive, peaceful presence”, on the second and fourth Fridays of the month between 10.45pm and 3.30am.

It is hoped that as more pastors are recruited, further patrols will be added so that eventually street pastors will be out every Friday throughout the year.

Rev Howard Leatherbarrow, chair of St Helens Street Pastors, said: “It’s a great pleasure to work alongside such committed and enthusiastic volunteers who are willing to devote their time and energy to bringing Jesus to the streets of St Helens in a practical way, caring and helping people as and when they need it.

“As part of their training our volunteers undertake observation patrols with other street pastor teams.”

The two men and five women will receive their street pastor caps at a special commissioning service on Sunday, December 11, at Ormskirk Street URC at 6pm.

At the service, St Helens Chief Superintendent Louise Harrison and St Helens cabinet member for community safety, councillor Lisa Preston, will both be speaking in support of the initiative and the patrols’ capacity to boost community safety.

Chief Supt Harrison says she is keen to see the initiative up-and-running in St Helens.

Ascension Trust, the organisation which runs street pastors in the UK, accepts volunteers aged 18 or above from the Christian community who have been committed to a church fellowship for more than a year.