Nicola Bulley: Security firm offers their services to the residents of St Michael's following recent anti-social behaviour incidents

With St Michael’s residents being plagued by TikTokers searching for missing Nicola Bulley, members of the community reached out to Spencer Sutcliffe Security for help, who have kindly offered to do daily and nightly patrols of the village for free.

The team conducted their first nightly tour of St Michael’s last night (February, 9), and owner Spencer Sutcliffe says they plan to continue their patrols over the next few days.

Spencer explained: “When the residents rang me, I thought what an awful situation, they’re already got the horror of what’s happened, plus nobody knows whats happened, and then they’ve got all these people trampling through their gardens, going through their sheds. When they’re approached by some of the residents, they’re becoming very aggressive towards them, and it’s just not nice.

“So I’ve offered our services for free, I’ll pay the staff out of my own pocket, and we’re just going to try and give the residents a bit of reassurance that there’s people out there looking after them, and work alongside the police – we’re not trying to replace them in anyway, but unfortunately, the police are understaffed and underfunded.”

As well as patrolling the village for the residents’ safety, Spencer Sutcliffe Secutiry have set up their own TikTok account, where they have already started posting videos of their patrols and urging people not to come to the village.

Spencer added: “It’s causing endless stress, I’m sure, to Nicola’s family, and it’s causing the residents of St Michael’s to be very on edge. We understand people have the right to freedom of movement but people also have the right to a private life, and to not have a breach to their peace, and unfortunately thats what they’re having at the minute.

"I’m a very community driven person, my children live in this area and during Covid, we were one of the founding members of the Garstang Volunteering Force, taking people to the hospital, we picked up people's shopping, we took them prescriptions. To me business isn’t all about making money, you have to give a little bit back as well.”

Although Spencer knows St Michael’s well and has done patrols around the area before, he has laised with village residents to see where the TikTokers and Youtubers have mainly been going.

Posting about the security firm’s involvement on a community Facebook group, one St Michael’s resident said: “This is not to replace the police or take away from them. This is to run alongside them. Spencer and his team are well trained in this area of patrol/security. The police are aware of there presence and have suggested it to be a good idea.

“To clarify, they will walk the village, drive through the village & visit any “hot spots” of note. Those people who’s land he requires permission from have been contacted & permission has been granted. Anyone working for SSS will be in uniform, have ID on and will be in company liveried vehicles. If anything is suspicious they will contact the police directly & are well used to doing this.

“This is not to scare people, it is hopefully to do the exact opposite.”