Not In My Neighbourhood week comes to Southwark » Local government » 24dash.com

Southwark Council will join boroughs around the country next week to demonstrate local work underway to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.
Not In My Neighbourhood week, from October 13 to 17, is a chance for local agencies to highlight what they’re doing to prevent anti-social behaviour and improve the safety and wellbeing of residents.

Work in Southwark will involve targeting residents’ specific concerns about the area in which they live, stepping up environmental awareness, and raising retailers’ awareness of trading standards rules around knife sales.

Activities planned during the week by the council alongside other Safer Southwark Partnership agencies include:

• Talking to Kingswood Estate residents about any concerns about the estate, and spending a day on the estate to tackle them. Issues to be canvassed with residents include nuisance dogs, littering, antisocial behaviour, personal safety and property damage.
• Holding a business breakfast to raise awareness among Southwark retailers of the importance of responsible trading, especially around knife sales.
• Heightening the presence of community wardens, who will respond to local issues identified through community councils. This will include raising awareness on how to prevent motor vehicle crime, tackling dog fouling hot-spots, and encouraging information-sharing through a community safety surgery.
• Recording visual audits of enviro-crime such as vandalism and graffiti to show 'before' and 'after' photos.

Southwark council’s community safety manager Jonathon Toy said: “Although this is the kind of work we carry out throughout the year, this is a great opportunity to bring local services together and remind Southwark residents that there is a huge range of people working for them under the Safer Southwark Partnership.

“As part of next week’s activities, we’ll be talking to residents of the Kingswood Estate about any changes they want to see on their estate. Then council and Police teams will spend a day on the estate addressing these concerns.

“Residents play a vital role in preventing crime and anti-social behaviour, and we hope our heightened presence during the week will encourage residents to speak up about what they want for their community,” he said.