ASB Awareness Week – Colchester Community Safety Partnership
A community action group working to keep people in Colchester safe has set its priorities for the next year.
The Community Safety Partnership has outlined three priorities to focus on in the coming year in response to the views of residents.
Having carried out a fear of crime survey and discussed the top issues in the town, the partnership is now looking to clamp down on the most prolific problems.
Community Safety Partnerships bring together councillors and council officers, police officers, fire officers, health colleagues, the probation service and other organisations – including Crimestoppers and Neighbourhood Watch – to work on tackling local crime and disorder and reducing reoffending.
The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex (PFCC) and Colchester Borough Council fund some of the partnership activity.
This year, the partnership in Colchester has been allocated £22,511 from the PFCC’s Community Safety Fund 2022/23.
The priorities for the year are to focus on tackling organised crime, gangs and drug trafficking; drive down antisocial behaviour and violent crime, including hate crime; and tackling domestic abuse and violence against women and girls.
Sonia Carr, community safety and safeguarding co-ordinator, said: “We have just agreed our priorities for the next 12 months and are working on what we can achieve as a partnership.
“We receive lots of input from the police and carry out a strategic assessment of crime which throws up what the highest crime types are. If there are gaps in what is being delivered, we look at what we can do together to fill those gaps.
“We have close links with other Community Safety Partnerships, particularly our neighbours in Tendring, and meet regularly across Essex to share ideas.
“From our fear of crime surveys, what we always see is there is a difference between the perception and fear of crime – especially with things like gangs and modern slavery in the news – and actual crime that is happening in our area.
“We work to reduce crime and disorder and to improve the quality of life for our residents, businesses and visitors. Everything we try to do is to make Colchester safer for everyone and for them to also feel safer. With the mix of partners we have in the Community Safety Partnership, we are able to do that.”
The partnership delivered the #SeeyouSafer social media campaign to highlight key messages on how to keep safe when out at night.
Operation Henderson saw the partnership raise awareness of child exploitation when using public transport.
The partnership operates from a hub in Colchester police station, where the probation service, health, mental health assessment teams, community policing, community safety and licensing teams are sometimes based and can meet face-to-face.
Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner said: “It is really great to see the work Colchester Community Safety Partnership have been doing to keep residents safe in the community. The proactive operations and patrolling in the district have led to a reduction in anti-social behaviour, which is a key priority in my Police and Crime Plan.
They have also done some excellent prevention work around making women and girls feel safer in public spaces, through their Safer Streets Campaign. We know that Community Safety Partnership’s work well in Essex and there is real value in partners working together to understand local problems and how to solve them.”
- Follow the partnership’s work on safercolchester.co.uk
