Newark and Sherwood District Council gives commitment to tackling anti-social behaviour
Measures, including better use of CCTV, have been approved to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Newark and Sherwood District Council also agreed to improve communication with residents and upgrade its community teams.
Cabinet members agreed proposals made by the anti-social behaviour working group, set up last year to help identify where the council's approach could be improved.
Results from the 2022 Resident’s Survey showed that tackling crime and anti-social behaviour was the third most important priority. It was rated as the service second most in need of improvement.
The proposals made by the anti-social behaviour working group included a communications campaign to help residents define and identify cases of anti-social behaviour as well as making it easier for them to make reports.
As part of this plan, residents will be kept informed of ongoing initiatives and updates from across the district, including a quarterly newsletter.
There will also be changes to the way the community protection officers operate to improve visibility, including considering locations and times, as well as buying new hybrid vehicle — with an estimated cost of £30,000 — and upgrades to the electrical charging station at Castle House.
The council will also continue to work closely with partners such as the police and school to that a strong focus on a collaborative approach to tackling anti-social behaviour is maintained.
It was also recommended that the location of CCTV cameras is reviewed on an annual basis to ensure they are where they could have the greatest impact and where appropriate taking action to remove obstructions which may impare the visibility.
Further research into using facial recognition will also be undertaken and discussion will take place to determine how to make the control room more effective.
The council's portfolio holder for Cleaner, Safer, Greener, Roger Jackson said: "Anti-social behaviour has risen since the covid lockdown, which has caused a few issues in Newark and Sherwood, but we have identified the wards with the main problems and are addressing them.
"We recently received over £1m for our Safer Streets project, which we are investing in new CCTV and lighting in areas which have been highlighted as having anti-social behaviour problems.
"This council have taken out five injunctions, six criminal behaviour orders, 36 community protection warnings, 24 acceptable behaviour contracts with young people and four new public protection orders.
"So you can see that we are trying to get on top of the issue, when working with local communities. But we do rely on them to highlight the problems in their area so that we can work with them and try and sort the problems out."
Deputy council leader Keith Girling said: "For the public, it is really really important that you do report. I have been involved in many reporting campaigns and they do make a difference because police do target areas where the most reports are made.
"So, if you don't report it, as far as the police are concerned it doesn't happen because they don't know about it."
Labour Group leader Paul Peacock said: "We rely too heavily on the reporting system, whereas in actual fact what we need to do is create better links with those communities that are suffering and dare not come forward.
"We need to build better communication and links with those communities where we know anti-social behaviour is taking place so that they will come to us.
"We spend a lot of money on CCTV and time putting them in place. We don't necessarily use that technology is the best way we can.
"There are barriers to police and community protection officer to getting that footage quickly enough to be able to act and serve notices.
"I think that is something we as a district council and wider need to deal with."
A timeline of nine months has been set out to ensure that plans are undertaken within an appropriate timeframe.
Cabinet members voted unanimously to approve the recommendations.
