A Week of Action starts today, Monday (March 10th), which has been organised by Safer South Gloucestershire to help reassure the public about crime and anti-social behaviour.
The week will also have a ‘health’ theme to coincide with No Smoking Day on Wednesday 12 March. Support To Stop advisers will be on hand at Kingswood Civic Centre from 10am to 2pm for drop in advice, and residents are invited to take advantage of a Walking to Health walk starting at the council offices from 12.15pm.
Olwen Kelly, community safety and substance misuse manager for Safer South Gloucestershire, said: “The last week of action in Kingswood worked well in raising public reassurance, and helped set up a dialogue between the people of Kingswood and the organisations who are working with them to make their area safer. Next week‘s event aims to build on the progress made last year and to tackle the issues that matter most to those who live and work in Kingswood.”
Other highlights of the week include:
● High visibility patrols by the DVLA, the council’s parking services and the police
● A drum workshop and disco for young people on Wednesday 12th at The Old School Youth Centre, from 7pm. Another disco takes place at the same venue on Friday 14th from 7pm.
● Environmental Action Day all day Thursday including advice from the dog wardens on micro chipping your pet
● The free Handy Van home security service will be available all day Monday and Thursday.
Police Community Support Officers will be distributing around 500 questionnaires during the course of the event to give residents and businesses a chance to have their say on issues of interest.
Feedback from questionnaires completed during the last Kingswood Week of Action in May 2007 revealed that the street briefing went down well with local residents and there has been an increase in communication between people in the local area and Safer South Gloucestershire agencies including the police and Avon Fire & Rescue.
Shopkeepers said they welcomed the reassurance visits from partnership agencies as a way to disseminate information and spread the community safety/environmental message.
Neighbourhood Policing Sergeant Paul Bolton-Jones said: “Avon and Somerset Police ran an intensive criminal damage patrol on the Friday night which turned out to be the quietest Friday night in Kingswood for quite a long time, and although this can’t be attributed to the week of action in its entirety, it was certainly felt that increased police visibility on the streets helped to discourage anti-social behaviour and disorder. We are looking forward to making even more progress this year.”
ENDS