08 September 2008
Further reducing levels of anti social behaviour in the county borough is the issue that most people would like to see, according to the results of a Safer Caerphilly Community Safety Partnership survey.
At this years summer festivals, Safer Caerphilly conducted an innovative "priority box" survey, whereby visitors were given "£100" and asked to "spend" it, by putting the money in boxes which correspond to their priorities for their local area.
Reducing levels of anti social behaviour came top of the list, with tackling substance misuse problems coming a close second. Other priorities that were identified by participants included fighting car crime and reducing dog fouling and litter in the local area.
Feedback gained from participants was extremely positive, with many commenting on how good they thought it was that their views and experiences were being taken into consideration.
Cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Lyn Ackerman said, "These surveys were an excellent means of engaging with the local community to find out what issues most concern local people. Participants really valued the fact that they were able to put forward their priority areas, in the knowledge that these priority areas really would be taken into account and acted upon.
We will continue to strive to improve our local residents' quality of life by developing further ways of combating anti social behaviour, thus making our communities even more pleasant places to live, work and visit."
The Safer Caerphilly Community Safety Partnership, through a detailed strategic assessment of its progress throughout the past three years, have identified both reducing levels of anti social behaviour and indeed reducing the harm caused by alcohol and other substances as key priorities for this year.
Anti Social Behaviour Co-ordinator, Rhiann Iles said, "We have found that by intervening early on when anti social behaviour initially becomes an issue, in the vast majority of cases this puts an end to the negative behaviour of an individual and resolves the problem satisfactorily for all concerned.
We do however understand that the issue of anti social behaviour tends to be a top priority that is identified in most community engagement activities.
Rest assured however, that the mechanisms are in place to deal with anti social behaviour in our local area, including our well established Four Strike intervention process, and by working in close partnership with our colleagues at Gwent Police, we are making clear strides in reducing levels of anti social behaviour, which can only be of benefit to our community."
Chair of the Community Safety Partnership, Chief Superintendent Alun Thomas, said: "Reducing anti-social behaviour is a key priority for both the community safety partnership and Gwent Police and we are working together in an effort to tackle the issue from a number of angles. This latest survey demonstrates that we are keen to engage with the local community and find out what issues are affecting them, as we do through the PACT process, so that we can target resources effectively and help to alleviate local crime and disorder issues."
The Safer Caerphilly Community Safety Partnership is a multi-agency organisation, whose five statutory organisations are Caerphilly County Borough Council, Gwent Police, Caerphilly Teaching Local Health Board, Gwent Police Authority and South Wales Fire and Rescue Authority. It works to reduce levels of crime, anti social behaviour and fear of crime in the local area.
To find out when the next PACT meeting is to be held in your local area, please visit www.gwent.police.uk
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