SENIOR police officers in Ipswich today hailed the town's Halloween celebrations as the best they could remember.

SENIOR police officers in Ipswich today hailed the town's Halloween celebrations as the best they could remember.

Chief Superintendent John Fletcher, the force's southern area commander, said the number of events police were called to was lower than on most regular nights with only 97 listed in 24 hours.

He said: “Historically events have more than doubled. This Halloween they were down by about 20per cent.”

Officers attributed the success to high-visibility policing and good parenting.

Chief Inspector Alan Caton said: “We rejigged our shift patterns so that officers were working when we thought there might be more problems later in the evening.

“We also had officers out of the station so we had a high visibility.

“It is definitely the best Halloween we have experienced in Ipswich and the southern area.”

In the weeks running up to Halloween police had issued posters for residents not wishing to take part and had also encouraged shops not to sell eggs and flour to youngsters.

Ch Supt Fletcher said on the night officers had also been armed with lollypops which they were handing out to youngsters in a bid to improve relations.

There were a few minor incidents with eggs, flour and pumpkins being thrown but, in the main, the evening passed quietly.

Did you encounter any problems over Halloween? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

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