Community Safety

Safer north devon North Devon and Torridge are amongst the safest places in the country to live with one of the lowest crime rates. This makes the chance of being a victim of crime comparatively small but this small chance can still be a big concern and an ongoing fear of crime can have a profound effect.

If you need support as a victim of crime then please contact victim support on either of the following numbers:

National Victim Supportline, at local rates, 0845 30 30 900

Devon Supportline, 0845 676 10 20

If you are at immediate risk, then call 999

This section deals with the following areas.

Who is making our communities safer?
Safety in our Communities
Community Safety and Neighbourhood Beat Managers
Community Safety and Parish Councils
How Safer North Devon can help?
Community Tasking and Co-ordination

Who is making our communities safer?

No matter how safe our community is today, there are always areas of concern and things that could be improved.

Low crime in our area does not happen by chance. It is the result of countless initiatives and projects by public and private sector agencies and our communities; and this work is ongoing.

Safer North Devon is the joint Community Safety Partnership (CSP) for both North Devon and Torridge districts.

Community Safety Partnerships have a crucial role in supporting delivery of the Home Office crime reduction and drug strategy agendas. Focused partnership work has the potential to address both local and national priorities around crime, disorder and substance misuse and our new crime and disorder reduction strategy reflects this.

Many agencies, such as Devon and Cornwall Police, Devon Youth Offending Team, Devon Probation Service and Safer North Devon were established to specifically tackle crime, the causes and impacts on individuals and the community. These agencies work in partnership to provide a continued safe environment for us to live, work and visit.

Safer North Devon delivers services to challenge anti-social behaviour, fear of crime and prolific offending across all areas of North Devon and Torridge.

Our project work is mainly concentrated on areas where we can contribute to an improved social, economic and environmental well-being in partnership with others. We support either existing regeneration or neighbourhood programmes, such as neighbourhood policing or by establishing new delivery groups where required.

Our current focal areas are:
Ilfracombe - working to support Transform
Forches and Gorwell in Barnstaple - working with North Devon Homes in the delivery of their regeneration programme.
East the Water - working with partner agencies developing local neighbourhood projects

For further information on our work in any of these areas please email info@safernorthdevon.co.uk

Information on agencies who work with Safer North Devon to reduce crime and fear of crime can be found on the A - Z of agencies

Safety in our Communities

Finding a balance for tolerance vs. intolerance to local problems is a struggle for all communities today. If there is a clear breach of the law, or an individual is at risk then immediate action should be taken. If you or someone you know is at immediate risk then call 999 immediately. Anti-social behavior challenges our communities daily and is a relative term. Although it isn't classified as breaking the law there are recognised processes to challenge and reduce this behaviour.

Working as a community to resolve local issues can achieve amazing results sometimes for very little investment on the part of individuals.

Community Safety and Neighbourhood Beat Managers

Neighbourhood Beat Managers are appointed by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary across both North Devon and Torridge to provide local resolution to local problems and improve community safety. Each Beat Manager works as part of a team, and will interface with response, crime reduction, youth affairs and specialist officers as well as external agencies to provide a response to your problem locally.

If your problem is related to breach of law or issues of anti-social behaviour or drug or alcohol related then make a call and discuss it with your local officer.

Meet your local Neighbourhood Beat Manager

Community Safety and Parish Councils

Each parish takes an active interest in making sure its residents feel safe and welcomes your input. If you have an idea or a concern about a specific area that may require some attention such as street lighting, road safety, safe parking, or overgrown vegetation etc, your parish council would like to know.

To find your local contact for your parish link to www.northdevon.gov.uk or www.torridge.gov.uk

Communities need to get involved in improving public reassurance by identifying problems locally and contributing to resolving them. If you have a residents association, or a local neighbourhood watch, then use this forum to air your concerns and consider if there is a consensus or suggestions for resolution.

These groups will consult local experts such as the Police Neighbourhood Beat Managers, Police Crime Reduction Team, Youth Service, Voluntary and Community Groups such as Help the Aged, Citizens Advice Bureau, Environmental Health etc, and may have already resolved this problem in another locality.

How Safer North Devon can help?

If you would like to find out more about our work and specific activities supported by Safer North Devon please click on the publications section for our strategy and action plans.

If you have a concern and need help finding the relevant agency, then please email info@safernorthdevon.co.uk for more help giving a very brief outline of your needs.

Community Tasking and Co-ordination

Do you have unanswered questions on community problem solving? Problems getting partners involved or just don't know who to ask? Need to be sign-posted to other agencies, but not sure where to start? Unresolved anti-social behaviour?

Safer North Devon can help you through the new Community Tasking and Co-ordination process. To find out more click here

Diversity

Diversity for Safer North Devon means targeting our activities to a broad audience defined as Groups of Special Interest. We are committed to developing practices that supports groups of interest in any way appropriate, whether this is victim or offender as a vulnerable individual or group.

If you or someone you know is the victim of crime as a result of their ethnicity then please contact Devon and Cornwall Constabulary locally on 08452 777 444 for non urget or 999 if urgent. For more information on how we monitor the success of our plans to deliver to our diverse communities please email info@safernorthdevon.co.uk