Churchyard closes due to anti-social behaviour

The churchyard at St John's in Glastonbury will be closed during May

A churchyard in a town centre is to close for a month after a spike in anti-social behaviour.

St John the Baptist's Church in Glastonbury will stop all church-related activities, other than Sunday services and funerals, for 30 days during May for a "reset".

Some residents in Glastonbury have said that closing a place of worship and a community hub was "extremely unfair".

The local Avon and Somerset Neighbourhood Policing Team said the closure was a "challenging" but a "necessary" step to protect the safety of the congregation, visitors and local residents.

Glastonbury resident Meig Lambert-Shiels said: "It's extremely sad. It's not the right approach for a Christian church to close their doors.

"It's an open space and I don't think the police are doing enough in the town to support the church.

"It's so sad that because of the behaviour of a handful of people, dozens of people that need help will suffer."

Glastonbury resident Meig Lambert-Shiels said it was "unfair" to close the churchyard

Police said they had been working with the council, schools and community organisations to try to tackle the rise in trouble but had seen a recent increase in reports of anti-social behaviour.

It comes after the BBC reported in January that some Glastonbury shop workers said more work needed to be done to crack down on crime and anti-social behaviour.

A police spokesperson said: "We have been working closely with representatives from the church and the local authority to combat anti-social behaviour in and around Glastonbury."

St John the Baptist's Church added in their statement: "We hope that this period of resetting may give other agencies a time to reassess allocation of resources to make the area accessible to all."