Lead: Council: Community Safety Manager
Deputy: Police: Neightbourhood Safety Inspector
Named Contact: Senior Community Safety Officer Claire Sills - Claire.Sills@Stockton.Gov.Uk
Other Agencies: Landlords, Youth Support Teams, Youth work agencies, schools, UNITE mediation service, licensed trade, SECO's and A Way Out (projects to support and work with prostitutes), the Fire Service and all members of Safer Stockton Partnership.
Our objective is to reduce anti social behaviour and increase feelings of safety. We take a broad view of anti social behaviour that would include all behaviour causing harrasment, alarm and distress to a reasonable person.
Background
56% of residents identified that anti social behaviour was the top key priority for them following our consultation during the summer of 2007. It was the top priority for all age groups except for under 16's who felt that drug related offending should be the top priority with anti social behaviour second. We also asked residents to identify which types of anti social behaviour were the most important to them and they told us the top six are:-
- People using/dealing drugs
- Alcohol misuse/street drinking
- Diverting young people from offending
- Vandalism
- Poor Parental Responsability
- People being drunk and rowdy
Alcohol misuse/street drinking, people being drunk and rowdy will be covered under this element of the plan. Poor parental responsibility is covered in this section and diverting young people from offending. The Partnership Strategic Assesment looked at data from April to September 2007. From that we know that 50% of people who contacted the ASB Team were female, 35% were male and the remainder were organisations such as shops, libraries or doctors surgeries.
The main offenders that come to our attention are under 18 (75%). Males account for 71% of perpetrators with the key age being 14 to 15 years. We also know that males are more likely to go on to have more serious sanctions imposed on them i.e. they are less likely than females to respond positively to our first interventions.
Since the ASB Team was established in 2001, we have negotiated 237 Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABC's) and obtained 55 Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO's). Of those only seven were for females and nine were under 16, which tells us that the preventative work that we do is effective especially for these categories.
By looking at the Police Strategic Intelligence Assesment and the Partnership Strategic Assesment we know that we need to concentrate our efforts into some wards more than others. The table below shows the number of incidents by Ward that the ASB Team dealt with from April 2007 to March 2008. Analysing data in this way helps to direct resources and services to where they are most needed.
| Ward | Total | % | Rate per 1000 population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stockton Town Centre | 314 | 14.8 | 48.1 |
| Mandale and Victoria | 227 | 10.7 | 21.9 |
| Billingham Central | 142 | 6.7 | 20.9 |
| Stainsby Hill | 129 | 6.1 | 19.2 |
| Norton North | 108 | 5.1 | 16.2 |
| Parkfield and Oxbridge | 111 | 5.2 | 15.8 |
| Newtown | 100 | 4.7 | 13.8 |
| Norton South | 98 | 4.6 | 12.9 |
| Billingham South | 85 | 4 | 12.8 |
| Billingham East | 85 | 4 | 12.5 |
| Grangefield | 76 | 3.6 | 11.5 |
| Bishosgarth and Elm Tree | 68 | 3.2 | 10.4 |
| Hardwick | 69 | 3.3 | 10.1 |
| Village | 61 | 2.9 | 9.7 |
| Fairfield | 53 | 2.5 | 8.6 |
| Billingham West | 50 | 2.4 | 8.4 |
| Ingleby Barwick East | 56 | 2.6 | 6 |
| Roseworth | 43 | 2 | 5.9 |
| Norton West | 34 | 1.6 | 5.4 |
| Billingham North | 50 | 2.4 | 5.2 |
| Northern Parishes | 15 | 0.7 | 4.6 |
| Ingleby Barwick West | 43 | 2 | 4 |
| Western Parishes | 11 | 0.5 | 3.4 |
| Eaglescliffe | 27 | 1.3 | 2.6 |
| Yarm | 23 | 1.1 | 2.4 |
| Hartburn | 10 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Location not recorded | 27 | 1.3 | N/A |
| Grand Total | 2,115 | 100.0 | 11.3 |
Defining anti social behaviour
There isnt a reliable definition for all of the types of behaviour that come under the generic term anti social behaviour. We take a broad view to cover any behaviour that causes harassment, alarm or distress, as experienced by a 'reasonable person'. We refer some cases to partners such as UNITE the mediation service. They are experts in resolving certain situations such as:
- Boundary and parking disputes
- Low level noise nuisance
- Ball games.
Environmental Health take the lead role for noise nuisance and they can be contacted on 01642 526575. The ASB Team will assist if it is a delibrate act which could be difined as anto social behaviour.
