About Magazine Issue 16

The Fight Against Crime

Reducing crime and the fear of crime in Hastings & St Leonards is one of the Council's key priorities, and a three year plan has been put together to help achieve those objectives.

Bringing down the key crimes of burglary, car crime, violent crime (including domestic violence) and drug dealing are at the top of the agenda. These crimes can only be tackled by local and regional organisations pooling their expertise and working together with the help of local people.

The strategy - 'Building Safer Communities in a Vibrant Town' - has been put together by the Council with the help of local people. A series of Audits were used to find out what residents were most concerned about, and how safe or unsafe they felt in different wards in the town.

What YOU said

Two 'fear of crime' surveys were carried out - one of which covered the whole of East Sussex which was compared with one purely about Hastings & St Leonards.

81% of respondents were concerned about burglary
70% were concerned about vehicle crime
75% were concerned about violent crime
77% were concerned about property

In Hastings town centre, rowdiness and disorder (16%), public drunkenness (15%) and physical assault (11%) were the incidents which caused the most concern while in St Leonards town centre public drunkenness (20%) was the only type of incident which caused concern to more than 10% of respondents.

The objectives (by 2005)

Burglary

To reduce the number of burglaries in the home by 12%
To reduce the number of burglaries at premises other than dwellings by 20%

Car crime

To reduce the number of vehicle crimes by 15%
To reduce the number of abandoned cars and to have 90% of abandoned and burnt out cars removed from the streets within 24 hours of the initial report

Domestic violence

To reduce the level of domestic violence by 5%

Drug and Alcohol Misuse

To reduce substance misuse through the development of prevention and treatment regimes
To reduce violent crime and anti social behaviour (this includes robbery, criminal damage, racist incidents, nuisance, rowdiness and assault)
To reduce the level of assaults in public places by 5% in 2002/3 and maintain this level to 2005
To establish an effective Racist Incident Reporting Scheme
To improve the perceptions of safety in the town centre and improve the quality of life in local neighbourhoods

Councillor Jay Kramer, Cabinet Member responsible for Community Safety, said:

"We know that community safety & crime reduction are the most important issues for local people. The Crime & Disorder Strategy for 2002-2003 provides the framework for all partners to work together to reduce crime and the fear of crime over the next three years."

For more information about the Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy please contact Community Safety Co-ordinator on 781438 or you can find copies of the strategy at Hastings Information Centre, Queens Square.

< Street life | Troublemakers' Times's Up >

This page last updated: 25/06/2002

Community and Living

See Also: