Community Safety Partnership

The partnership has two over-arching principles within its strategy. These are: -

• Equality of Service - Providing service according to need, treating people fairly and having 'transparent services'
• Reassurance - First and foremost, reassuring the community that we are doing everything we can to provide services that recognise the fear of crime is much worse than the reality of crime in South Bedfordshire

Strategic Aims

Useful documents

Successes so Far

In South Bedfordshire we are particularly proud of our Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) scheme which the audit has indicated significantly reduces people's fear of crime in our town centres. An application to the Home Office to expand the programme and facilities has been successful. The partnership has also been able to secure significant amounts of Single Regeneration Budget funding for outreach work with young people I Houghton Regis and Dunstable under the auspices of the town councils. We have also developed a radio link scheme that has brought benefits to those shopping in the town centres.

The partnership has worked closely with BRCC, who were successful in securing lottery funding and have taken a lead on community safety in our rural areas supporting parish councils and rural community safety groups. Other notable successes include the grant scheme, our tri-annual standing conferences on various themes and in different locations, giving local people the opportunity to contribute and our work on local estates in targeting the most vulnerable, the elderly, the bullied and the socially excluded.

A particular significant factor in our success to date has been South Bedfordshire District Council's decision to integrate community safety workers into the Community and Leisure Teams. This has enabled best use of limited resources by maximising on local contacts, often with the most hard to reach groups.

Community Safety Standing Conferences

These events have gone from strength to strength over the last three years attracting 70 - 100 attendees each time and providing a valuable opportunity to involve our 250 plus agency contacts who have some interest or concern in community safety issues. They are also open to the general public to attend. The conferences have tended to be on a specific theme, such as rural issues or the elderly and have been based on a combination of information, good practice sharing and consultation about new ways forward.