southtyneside.info
Safer and Stronger Communities
Updated May 2008
Safer and stronger communities are crucial to regenerating South Tyneside.
People are feeling safer because crime is falling, particularly in deprived areas, and understanding and respect is growing.
Communities are strengthened because we are tackling poverty, improving the quality of life, and involving the people of the borough in the decisions that affect them.
This theme sets out objectives for shaping communities, empowering the people in them, giving them a voice, and helping to make South Tyneside a safer place to live.
Vision
South Tyneside is a place where people feel safe because crime is the exception rather than the rule.
It is also a place where everyone can feel involved and included in a way that suits them, where people understand and respect each other, and communities are actively engaged in decisions that affect them.
Policy story
South Tyneside has a wide variety of policies which operate within a framework of government legislation to guide its vision for safer and stronger communities, such as:
- Area and Neighbourhood Working Strategy
- Building Safer Communities Together
- South Tyneside Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership Plan 2008-2011
- Community Cohesion Plan 2008-2011
- Community Involvement Strategy 2008-2011
We have used intelligence to define natural priority neighbourhoods. Every one will be covered by neighbourhood action plans by the end of 2008/9 using participatory appraisal research, resident’s surveys and statistical profiling at a neighbourhood level.
However, we cannot achieve our vision alone. South Tyneside is a partner in the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, which involves a number of key agencies, such as Northumbria Police, Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue, Health Services, the Youth Offending Service and the Drug Action Team, amongst others.
Priority objectives and performance
We have a clear and focused set of objectives that we need to achieve over the long term to deliver our vision. We have identified top priorities for our Safer and Stronger Communities vision - our priority objectives. These are the things on which we believe we can make the biggest and most sustainable impact and these are the things we will focus on improving first. These are the priority objectives that have been set for 2008-20011 (our top ten outcomes are in bold):
- Build respect in communities and reduce anti-social behaviour
- Reducing the harm caused by illegal drugs and alcohol
- Reducing key crimes particularly in crime hotspots
- Involving people to have a greater voice and influence over the local decision-making and the delivery of local services
- Building social capital
- Promoting Equality and Diversity and community cohesion
- Reducing poverty amongst our most vulnerable groups
Key information
Despite having made significant reductions in recent years, we have the second highest rate of criminal damage per 1,000 in Tyne and Wear.
Anti-social behaviour often peaks during Halloween and Guy Fawkes celebrations. Our successful Mischief Week Campaign (29 October to 5 November 07) showed a 47% reduction in crime compared to the same time the previous year.
There is a lot of focus, both nationally and locally on binge drinking. The number of adults who binge drink in South Tyneside is far too high, estimated as high as 26% compared with an 18.2% average for England. In relation to binge drinking South Tyneside is rated 6th out of the 10 worst Local Authorities in England.
South Tyneside has the lowest number of reported incidents of domestic violence and the highest repeat victimisation rate (51%) in the Northumbria Police area.
The 2006 BVPI General Survey found that 28% of people in the borough believe there is a high level of anti-social behaviour, down from 49% in 2004. This reduction is the largest in Tyne & Wear.
Next update due: April 2009