The Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones, says her commitment to partnership working is driving down anti-social behaviour (ASB) across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
It comes at the start of ASB Awareness Week which runs from today until 24th November 2024 with the theme #MakingCommunitiesSafer.
This year, the Commissioner has invested £1.25million into combatting anti-social behaviour with 2 major partnership announcements.
An extra £500,000 was made available from the PCC’s ASB Fund to local authorities, police, community safety partnerships and community groups to bid into. The Commissioner also released £750,000 of Home Office grant funding to local authorities to fund specialist ASB community wardens to patrol ASB hotspots.
PCC Donna Jones has said:
“We all know that anti-social behaviour destroys lives and blights neighbourhoods. It can also be a precursor to more serious crime. Policing is not the only agency responsible for reducing ASB so it’s important for me to do everything I can to help and empower partner agencies.”
The £500,000 cash injection meant funding for 29 projects to combat ASB. This has included funding for CCTv monitoring for Ryde Methodist Church.
A Managing Trustee says:
“The Commissioner’s funding has made such a difference. After the cameras were installed, the ASB stopped. We know that ASB can be the start of larger problems and with the Commissioner’s help, we have taken the right step towards stopping it at the source.”
The funding released by the Police and Crime Commissioner for ASB Community Wardens has been distributed to local authorities in Portsmouth, Rushmoor, Eastleigh, Havant and Waterlooville, Southampton, Fareham, Gosport, Winchester, Basingstoke and Deane, Test Valley and the Isle of Wight.
The Wardens are playing a vital role in tackling anti-social behaviour. In 20 ASB hotspot areas, they carried out 522 patrols last month dedicating 1,076 hours. The patrols mean an increased response to ASB with more community engagement, information and intelligence sharing.
This week’s ASB Awareness Week has been organised by Resolve. According to the community safety organisation, 1.3million UK adults experience anti-social behaviour at least once a day, and 42% of UK adults say that ASB levels have increased compared to 3 years ago.
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is bucking that trend. In the 3 years since the PCC took office, the total number of recorded ASB incidents has more than halved:
- 1 April 2020 – 31 March 2021 = 37,325 recorded incidents
- 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022 = 29,201 recorded incidents
- 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023 = 22,418 recorded incidents
- 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024 = 18,153 recorded incidents
PCC Donna Jones adds:
“These figures speak for themselves. I promised the public that anti-social behaviour would be tackled and the number of recorded incidents has gone down across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight by 50%. It is clear that by working together, we can achieve safer communities. Anti-social behaviour must be challenged and solved because we all have the right to feel safe in our own homes and out on the streets as we go about our daily lives.”
So many anti-social issues to deal with, it’s
the uneducated who cause the problems.
More CCTV needs installing to help prevent such
behaviour taking place.