Safe Neighbourhood

What does this mean?

• Violence in the night-time economy: Reducing actual violent crime and the fear of crime at night.
• Domestic abuse: Reducing domestic abuse, particularly the number of repeat incidents.
• Anti-Social Behaviour: Reducing levels of anti-social behaviour so that it has less impact on the lives of local residents.
• Fear of crime: Giving local people confidence that the Council and Police are tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.

Why is this important?

• Crime and anti-social behaviour helps define an area and impacts directly on residents quality of life;

• Residents in Thanet feel less  safe at night than residents in other Kent districts;

• Thanet has the highest level of domestic abuse in Kent. This impacts on other services including housing, social services and education;

• Local residents say that tackling anti-social behaviour in the area they live is a high priority;

• Crime in Thanet has fallen compared to the previous year but still ranks as the highest in the county;

• Over the last nine months there has been twice the level of recorded robberies in Thanet compared to any other Kent district;

• Violent crime has fallen by 8.9% on last year but Thanet still has the highest levels of violent crime in the county;

• When compared to the rest of Kent a high proportion of Thanet residents feel that drunk/rowdy behaviour is a big problem locally.

What are we going to do?

Key projects

• Approve a new business plan for CCTV, exploring options for sharing investment and operating costs with neighbouring authorities. (Start: May 09 - Finish: Nov 11)
• Set up and run the SOS bus – mobile police station and A&E centre, to remove vulnerability from the night-time economy. (Start: Nov 09 - Finish: Sep 10)
• Extend KCAP (Kent Community Alcohol Partnership) to Margate and Cliftonville to tackle the availability of alcohol to young people. (Start: Apr 10 - Finish: Mar 11)
• Establish the specialist domestic abuse court to improve conviction rates. (Start: Nov 09 - Finish: Jan 11)
• Establish the Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme to reduce repeat incidents. (Start: Apr 10 - Finish: Mar 11)
• Introduce an anti-social behaviour car where police and council officers go out on patrol together, to cover out of hours incidents. (Start: Nov 09 - Finish: Mar 11)
• Implement a support programme for witnesses of anti-social behaviour. (Start: Jan 10 - Finish: Mar 11)
• Run regular community safety campaigns to improve people’s perceptions of safety. (Start: Apr 10 - Finish: Mar 11)
• Run Thanet Community Safety Partnership open forums in Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate. (Start: Apr 10 - Finish: Mar 11)

Key commitments

• The Council is committed to using every opportunity to tackle anti social behaviour and will continue to increase the use of measures such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Acceptable Behaviour Agreements and Dispersal Areas.
• The Council is committed to providing assurance to local people that justice is being done and will maximise the opportunities associated with the community payback scheme.

Next page: Beautiful Thanet

Previous page: Thanet's Economy

• Foreword  
• Thanet's Economy
• Safe Neighbourhoods
• Beautiful Thanet
• Quality Housing
• Healthy Communities
• Modern Council

Corporate Resources Manager

E-mail: sarah.carroll@thanet.gov.uk

Tel: 01843 577188