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It was back in April that a scheme to tackle late night drinking in Swindon, by sending churchgoers out onto the streets at weekends, was launched.

Nicknamed the "street pastor" scheme, it's an initiative that's already been proving helpful in tackling drink-fuelled anti-social behaviour in London, Manchester and Birmingham among others.

Street Pastors on patrol

And this weekend it's Swindon's turn when the preacher patrols hit the streets of town where, it's hoped, they'll prove helpful to people in difficulty out drinking late at night:

"We're there as a presence as a listening ear," says Nigel Perrot one of the scheme's organisers, "for those people that are leaving the nightclubs and the pubs in town primarily in Regents Street and that area.

"We're there to just to talk to people and hopefully to diffuse situations that might arise and assist the police and the doormen."

Trawling the streets at night, from 10pm through to 4am, the street pastors will be on hand not only to diffuse fights and offer practical support to distressed individuals but also to simply lend a friendly ear or shoulder to cry on. 

Dressed in distinctive blue jackets and baseball caps the volunteers have all been trained up to meet and counsel people before taking to the streets:

"All Street Pastors have undergone an eight week training course which is very intense," says Nigel, "and no street pastors will be allowed out on to the street until that's been done."

Not only does the course tackle anger management and crowd control but health and safety, first aid and drug awareness among other things.

The scheme hits the streets

In Swindon the Christian volunteers in the Pastor Patrols have all been recruited from local churches and, with the support of local police and social service workers, are due to go on patrol in the town centre from Friday 28th September:

"At first, we're concentrating on the Fleet Street area on Friday nights," says Paul, "but we hope to expand both to Saturday nights and also to Old Town."

For more information about the Street Pastor scheme or to take part in the second Pastor's Training Course, in January 2008, please click on the link in the right hand column.