The street wardens have been patrolling the town for a year, and have already dealt with a whopping 19,618 incidents.
Employed as the eyes and ears of the community, the team of eight has now grown to ten. They patrol the town between 10am and 10pm from St Leonards (Stamco) to Rock a Nore, including central St Leonards and the town centre.
The team made six citizens arrests, for issues including assault and criminal damage and played a key part in the Council's first ever prosecution for anti social behaviour. This led to a maximum 5 year ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) being served on Ray Wells of Southwater Road in December this year, which if breached, could result in a prison sentence. At the moment the wardens are involved in another six ASBO cases.
Dealing with street drinking has been high on their agenda, although the wardens do not have the power to arrest or enforce the street drinking byelaw, they advise the drinkers that they are committing an offence and ask them to move on.
But it is not just responding to the public or to incidents as they occur that fill the wardens' days. They play a proactive role in the community and have attended 358 residents' meetings, giving advice, explaining their roles and making a vital link with the local people and helping them find out about key issues in each area.
The wardens, along with the community safety team, have introduced a personal alarm scheme. Over 150 personal alarms have been given to vulnerable people including elderly people, those living in warden managed housing and those suffering with mental health problems. They are members of the successful town centre Shop Watch scheme and have helped reduce crime around the Stade - 17 incidents occurred between April and August 2002, compared to 47 in the same period 2001.
Since the important links have been made with the local community, new projects are taking place. Thanks to the street wardens, a youth club is being set up at Southwater Community Centre. The wardens applied for funding from Government for the project and it has also been supported by the police, Gensing Central St Leonards Forum and Neighbourhood Renewal Funding. Young people in the area have been involved in setting up the project making sure that it is what they want and need to make it a success.
Councillor Trevor Webb, Cabinet Member responsible for Community Safety, said:
"We worked really hard to get the funding for street wardens, which was initially going to run for three years.
"We then managed to extend the scheme to include the Stade, because the fishermen were experiencing problems - particularly vandalism to their equipment and I am delighted that the statistics seem to show that the number of reported incidents has dropped.
"I think that this scheme is going from strength to strength - we were set targets to achieve by the Government which we have met and exceeded, such as the number of patrolling hours. We were set the target of 6161 hours of patrolling and have achieved 9637. We were told that wardens must spend time in two residents meetings and two business meetings per quarter and in fact the wardens have been attending around 30 meetings per month.
"I hope that everyone who lives in the town will agree that the wardens are providing the much needed visible presence that we need and they are doing a great job."
Incidents dealt with include:
| Abandoned vehicles | 330 |
| Advice given | 913 |
| Agency Involvement eg Social Services | 2822 |
| Alcohol related issues | 1001 |
| Anti social behaviour | 1955 |
| Anit wardent | 188 |
| Assault | 51 |
| Car crime | 289 |
| Crime prevention | 169 |
| Criminal damage | 217 |
| Drug related issues | 178 |
| DVLA | 480 |
| Environmental issues | 3162 |
| First aid administration | 79 |
| Graffiti | 715 |
| Highways | 269 |
| Incidents in commercial premises | 2389 |
| Incidents in residential zones | 2536 |
| Licensing | 176 |
| Lost property | 95 |
| Meetings attended | 358 |
| Missing persons | 84 |
| Mistaken identity | 393 |
| Offensive weapons | 36 |
| Overhanging vegetation | 38 |
| Racial issues | 40 |
| Sharps: needles etc | 68 |
| Stade/fishing incidents | 35 |
| Vulnerable vehicles | 379 |
| Total number of incidents | 19618 |
You can contact the Street Warden Office at Warrior Square Station by phoning 01424 781840. *The Greater Hollington Community Wardens Team have won an award for their outstanding work with young people outside school hours. The prestigious award was one of only ten presented. The £500 award will be spent within the Greater Hollington Project Area.
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This page last updated: 03/07/2003