Community Safety successes

The Sevenoaks District Community Safety Partnership's future plans and some 80 projects that have taken place in the last year to tackle crime and the fear of crime were discussed last night by the Council's Cabinet (26 August 2004).

A diverse range of projects, took place from 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004, which included:

- Over 100 areas cleaned of graffiti by the Probation Service and many graffiti cleaning kits handed out to local resident groups and organisations
 - Police-led drugs operations resulting in 60 arrests for class A drugs and over 250 cars being stoped and searched
- Work to address anti-social behaviour, which included issuing 22 warning letters, agreeing four acceptable behavior agreements and issuing one interim Anti-Social Behavior Order (ASBO)
- Improvements to street lighting, support for focussed youth work and support for the Sevenoaks Town Centre Partnership, which has been presented with the Safer Shopping Award
- Further wardens and Police Community Support Officers deployed in the District - taking the total to seven with more to follow in the near future
- Over 200 untaxed cars removed through the multi-agency Operation Cubit
- Over 20 homes made safe through schemes for vulnerable and elderly residents
- Over 60 home fire safety checks carried out by Kent Fire & Rescue Service
-  11 burglary victims who were helped to make their homes secure through the Homesafe scheme
- 100 referrals to Help the Aged Handy Van Scheme to provide safety and security products to the elderly
- 500 visits by the North Kent Crime Prevention Panel villages to give crime prevention advice and crime prevention devices
- Five new Neighbourhood Watch Schemes have been set up

In the coming year, the Community Safety Partnership will spend about £160,000 of Central Government funding to help with its projects. This will include a new member of staff employed by the Council to co-ordinate District-wide action to tackle anti-social behavior.

The Community Safety Partnership is now in the process of developing a new action plan to run from April 2005. As part of the plan, the Partnership is working on a crime and disorder audit, which is being carried out with the help of University of Kent and will involve extensive consultations through interviews and questionnaires. The results will be published by December 2004.

Cllr Keith Loney, the Council's Cabinet Member with responsibility for Community Safety, says: "Over the past year, so much has been achieved in terms of community safety and this is the result of all the partners working together for the benefit of District residents. The challenge facing the Partnership in the coming year is to establish those areas of concern to both local people and partners and to draw up successful plans to address them."

Sevenoaks District Community Safety Partnership includes representatives from the police, Sevenoaks District Council, Kent County Council, the Probation Service, Youth Offending Team, health providers, housing associations, the voluntary sector and Kent Fire and Rescue. The Partnership also works with local voluntary and community groups as well as town and parish councils and local residents.

For more information, visit the Sevenoaks District Community Partnership website www.sevenoaks-csp.org.uk