SECURING COMMUNITY SAFETY: FIVE YEARS ON

A report looking at how community safety has been secured in Ards, five years after the area's Community Safety Partnership was formed, has been launched.

More than 50 people from the local community, as well as representatives from organisations like the PSNI, Women's Aid and Age Concern, attended an event (Thursday 28th January) to launch the new report which details the progress made in improving community safety across three priority areas - anti-social behaviour, violent crime and fear of crime among vulnerable groups, particularly the elderly.

Funding over the last five years has been used to support a range of initiatives, from small youth diversion schemes to large, long-term projects.

Among the notable successes have been the Partnership's contribution to securing the six camera CCTV system which now operates in Newtownards town centre and the establishment of over 40 Neighbourhood Watch schemes across the Ards Borough. The Links' MARC project which aims to support individuals struggling with addiction problems has also received funding, as has the 'Good Morning' project which provides reassurance and appropriate help via a free daily telephone service for those who live alone and at times can feel anxious and vulnerable. Youth forums, social issues associated with bonfires, 'movable' CCTV cameras, band parades, intergenerational work, domestic violence, fire education and children's safety are also examples of issues which have been tackled since 2005.

An analysis of crime figures shows that in the period since the Partnership has been in operation, reported crime in Ards has fallen by 25.2% and since 2006, anti-social behaviour has dropped by 28.4%. Surveys to establish people's perceptions of how safe they feel, showed that while the majority of residents (67% in 2008) feel safe, 9% felt more unsafe in 2008 than when compared with two years previously.

The statistics are, according to Councillor David Smyth, Chairman of the Partnership since it was established five years ago, encouraging overall:

"The Community Safety Partnership is one of many organisations working to improve how safe Ards is and so, while a drop in crime figures can never be attributed solely to our work, we do believe that the initiatives which have been undertaken since 2005 have had an impact. Clearly, we would like to see residents' views of how safe they feel on the rise, but it is not an unsurprising result given extensive media coverage of crimes which do occur, particularly against older people, and a natural time lag between work being done and people's opinions changing. This is an area of work which we need to address through our future activities".

Councillor Smyth also praised the efforts of local communities and their contributions to improving the quality of life in their own areas:

"Ensuring the involvement of local communities in dealing with safety issues has always been at the core of the Partnership's work. This new report demonstrates very clearly that much of the progress in tackling problems associated with anti-social behaviour or the fear of crime has been made by local people working on the ground, with the Partnership's support, to put measures in place which make a real difference," said Councillor Smyth. "We do, of course, also have to be realistic. No approach is perfect and no strategy will ever provide a permanent solution to the problems we face, but we are right to acknowledge the achievements of these first five years, to take stock and to continue our work to make the Ards Borough a safer place to live, to work and to visit".

Copies of the report are available from Bob Wilson, Community Safety Manager at Ards Borough Council, Tel: 028 9182 4047 and or can be downloaded here.