SAFETY - Community Safety
Central Beds. Community Safety Department
Our communities are important. They are where we live, work, shop play and enjoy our free time. Improving them and making them safer places is a priority of both National and Local Government, and one which Central Bedfordshire Council takes very seriously.
In the BEST Advice section on Anti Social Behaviour we mentioned the Community Safety Partnership, but this group really merits a section to itself to give you a better idea of its aims and priorities.
We asked the CBC Community Safety Department to tell us more about their work in not only reducing crime, but also reducing the fear and perception of crime and making all our neighbourhoods better and safer places.
This is what they told us:
"Community safety is an area of concern for all communities. It is consistently a high public priority, and one that can affect the quality of life for individuals and entire communities. In recent years it has been acknowledged that tackling community safety issues cannot be done by the police alone, but is dependent on a number of organisations, and services, working together to find solutions to community problems."
"This coordinated approach was encapsulated in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which made it a statutory duty for each local authority area to have a Community Safety Partnership in place, made up of representatives from:"
| Statutory Partners |
|---|
| Central Bedfordshire Council |
| Bedfordshire Police Authority |
| Bedfordshire Police |
| Bedfordshire & Luton Combined Fire Authority and Bedfordshire & Luton Fire & Rescue Service |
| NHS Bedfordshire |
| Bedfordshire Probation Trust (with effect from 1st April 2010) |
Community safety covers a broad area of policy including, but not limited to:
- Policing
- Crime & Disorder
- Reduce Re-offending
- Substance Misuse
- Fire
- Anti-Social Behaviour
- Domestic Abuse
Community Safety Aims
Community Safety aims to reduce crime and disorder, anti-social behaviour and other behaviour affecting the local environment, as well as reducing the misuse of drugs, alcohol and other substances, reduce the fear of crime and increase public confidence in our service.
Community Safety Priorities
A Strategic Assessment is completed once a year. This assessment identifies high risk areas to the Community Safety Partnership, and analyses priority areas that need to be tackled.
| Priority | Description |
|---|---|
| Reduce Re-offending | We plan to work with re-offenders and pool our resources, to help re-offenders turn away from crime, using punishment and reform |
| Reduce Substance Misuse – Drugs & Alcohol | We aim to set up more intervention and treatment programs to help those adults and young people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol |
| Reduce Serious Acquisitive Crime (Domestic Burglary and Theft from Motor Vehicle) | We aim to reduce crime and the fear of crime, especially targeting burglary, vehicle offences and robberies |
| Reduce Anti-Social Behaviour | To help combat anti-social behaviour, we will pull our resources together and use prevention, intelligence and enforcement |
| Reduce Domestic Abuse | We aim to provide more professional support to those at risk of domestic abuse, working closely with those involved in repeat incidents of domestic abuse, with clear routes into safeguarding adults and children |
| Casualty Reduction (Road Safety)* | We aim to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads using a multi-agency approach looking at how to make our roads safer through engineering, raising safety awareness through education and where necessary the use of enforcement |
* (This priority was adopted by the Community Safety Executive in late 2009. This was due to community concerns and feedback from customer surveys)
These priority areas were identified using a priority matrix and risk matrix. Using this process ensures that we can compare partnership risks against each other in intelligence and structured way. The end result ensures that we are working on the most important issues.
Central Bedfordshire Community Safety Partnership Plan
The Community Safety Plan is a statutory document, and aims to set out the priorities for action within Central Bedfordshire. Each year the community safety priorities are refreshed through the partnership strategic assessment process. These priorities will inform not only the work of the Community Safety Team but that of the statutory partners.
View a copy of this plan:
Central Bedfordshire Community Safety Plan
If you have any questions about Community Safety, or the Community Safety Plan then please contact the Community Safety Unit at Central Bedfordshire Council on 0300 300 8000