WORKING... SAFER COMMUNITIES
Crime
Overall crime in Middlesbrough has fallen substantially. Between 2001 and 2004, crime fell 14%, representing 4,000 fewer recorded crimes. Incidents of burglary have halved since 2001, vehicle crime is down by 13% and robbery has been substantially reduced. The 2005 neighbourhood survey found that 93% of people thought their neighbourhood was safe, up from 61% in 2001.
Such progress has been achieved by taking an integrated approach to reducing crime, the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour. Part of this has been the successful implementation of the Street Warden service and the use of neighbourhood management schemes – these give each community two dedicated neighbourhood wardens and are currently being rolled out across the town. In addition, dedicated neighbourhood policing for every area is the process of being set up. In 2005/06 the Council dealt with 14,000 requests for public protection services and gave personal security advice to over 5,000 residents.
Respect
The Council is also putting in place the Government’s 'Respect' agenda by: clamping down on anti-social behaviour and targeting persistent truancy; examining community payback schemes; developing specialised leisure facilities and family support projects; targeting disadvantaged youth through sport and art; improving provision for those out of school; and improving support for parents through parenting classes, issuing parenting orders as a last resort. A Respect Action Plan is being drawn up in conjunction with the police and other bodies.
72 ASBOs were issued in 2005/06 and there is currently a case file of around 300, including those at the early stages, preventative work, warnings and diversionary activity. The Council has never lost an application for an ASBO in the courts. However, it is important to stress that such numbers represent a very tiny minority of the over 38,000 5 to 24-year-olds in Middlesbrough.
The Council, together with the Police, Fire, Health and other services, formed the Safer Middlesbrough Partnership, a body that will continue to clamp down on crime and anti-social behaviour across the town.
Facilities for Young People
Youth services and facilities to persuade young people away from anti-social behaviour have been massively expanded, with the creation of the Prissick Plaza, the BMX track in Beechwood and successful events such as Middlesbrough Music Live and the Boro Buzz festival over the fireworks period.
Leisure Facilities
Council-run sports and leisure facilities are plentiful, especially for young people, with 3 major parks, 5 sports centres, plus Clairville Stadium, 3 swimming pools, a golf course, a skate park and a number of Youth and Community Centres. We aim to encourage maximum participation in sport and physical activity at all levels, through measures such as the Middlesbrough 10k run, and an Active Middlesbrough Strategy is in place.
Hand-in-hand with this we are committed to reducing alcohol abuse, smoking (which has been banned in all council facilities), obesity and unhealthy diets. We are working with traders to do so. The creation of an alcohol free zone in the town centre has had a significant impact.
Safer Streets
The number of alleygates has increased, most recently in the North Ormesby, Park, Linthorpe and University areas. The installation of CCTV has been rolled out across the town to cover areas of Middlehaven, including the Riverside, the Town Hall and Borough Road, as well as Clairville Stadium, Linthorpe Cemetery and Marton Road. A further £250k will be invested to extend this further. In addition, there has been £1m worth of investment to hook up 144 around-the-clock cameras at Middlesbrough bus station. All of these measures led to 678 arrests in 2005/06.
The Council has also received new powers to tackle problem landlords via a licensing scheme and is developing a ‘Respect Standard’ for housing management. It has undertaken pioneering work to safeguard young people from prostitution and clean up areas from the trade, and has carried out successful prosecutions for under-age sales of alcohol. The liberalisation of licensing hours has been smoothly phased-in in Middlesbrough and consultations are currently underway on a gambling policy.
Other work includes the management of markets and street trading to ensure a fair and safe trading environment, the establishment of a trading standards hotline, a continued focus on the regulation of fireworks, examining ways of sustainable development and working towards making Middlesbrough a Fairtrade town.