VOTE: We're scared '“ Bognor is like Beirut, says campaigner

The outpouring of support had reached 2,320 members yesterday '“ just three days after she started a Facebook group dedicated to her cause.

She said: "The amount of support shows the number of really worried people there are in the town.

"Some of the younger people who have contacted me are scared to even go out. This should be a lovely, small seaside town and yet it's turning into Beirut.

"I want the police to be aware of how scared people are about what is going on. There is so much of it. Bognor seems to be getting more violent by the minute.

"Someone is going to end up dead or badly maimed and I wanted to make a stand now before that happens.

"If you go to the seafront at the weekends, you can see all the police waiting there for people to come out of the nightclubs.

"But that means there are no police patrolling the rest of the town.

That leaves residents wide open to be attacked."

Bognorian Ms Wilson, 50, of Collyer Avenue, set up Make Our Streets Safe Again in Bognor Regis on Sunday after two incidents.

One was the reported sex attack in Chichester Road. The other was an assault on Collyer Avenue last Friday which caused actual bodily harm to its victim.

Ms Wilson, who is unemployed, had arranged to meet two councillors last night to begin to raise her group's members' concerns.

"We all need to work together to solve this problem," she said. "The more voices we have speaking out the more impact we will have in the area."

An e-petition linked to her group had attracted more than 500

names by last night.

Inspector John Merrick, of Bognor police station, said he would welcome the chance to meet Ms Wilson to discuss the group's fears.

"But they do not reflect the facts," he said. "As the Observer has reported, public place violent crime has fallen by 50 per cent compared to two years ago. That is the result of the police working with other agencies and we will continue to do that."

He explained extra police officers were brought in to patrol the seafront at weekends. "This enables the usual patrols around the town to continue," he said.

"Residents' calls are responded to as normal during those times. It is not the case all the police's resources are concentrated on the seafront."

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