NEW wardens have been deployed in Basildon to keep the borough's parks safe following a string of attacks.

The team of five includes four wardens who will be patrolling the parks, and a controller monitoring the CCTV footage and advising them from the team’s base.

The wardens will be in the parks seven days a week, between 9am and midnight.

The wardens will be wearing live Halo cameras and will be tracked via GPS to be able to best deploy wardens to areas and potential incidents.

It comes after four linked assaults on women in February. 

The first incident took place on February 5 at 2pm when a woman was followed by a man in Broadhurst Place On the same day, a 34-year-old woman was attacked when someone grabbed her on Wickhay at 5.40pm.

On February 15, a woman in her 20s was assaulted by a man in Pamplins at around 2.30pm.

Shortly before 3pm on the same day, another woman reported being approached from behind by a man in Nether Priors and sexually assaulted. This also saw the victim grabbed from behind in the chest area. 

In addition to the regular patrolling, residents are able to report any anti-social behaviour on an anonymous reporting line - a text to 60060. 

People can also report incidents can be reported on Twitter via @AIBReportit. Wardens will then be deployed to incidents as soon as they come in.

Deputy Chief Executive of Basildon Council, Mandie Skeat, said: “We’re blessed with fantastic parks and open spaces in the borough, and we want our residents to feel as safe as possible when they visit them.

"Park wardens are one of the measures we’re implementing to improve community safety across the whole borough.

“The wardens will be active and visible from the morning into the late night and will wear body cameras to capture any unacceptable behaviour in our parks.

"I strongly encourage residents to report any anti-social behaviour they see in our parks to 60060, as then we will be able to respond and deal with these incidents as quickly as possible.

“This initiative will be on an initial three-month trial basis, with the effectiveness being evaluated at the end of the trial period. If they are proving successful, wardens will become a feature of our parks moving forwards.”