Following the collapse of the steel industry and the growth of unemployment, Corby acquired the reputation of being the ‘yob capital of England’. In 2006 the council developed a Community Safety and Neighbourhood Management Team which operates through four local neighbourhood management teams across the borough. The council ensured the boundaries fitted with new Neighbourhood Policing Team boundaries established by Northamptonshire Police.
Each area has a Joint Action Group (JAG) which provides the opportunity for local communities to set priorities for the agencies, including the council, police and fire service. JAG on your Street is a small but important part of a strategic approach to neighbourhood management in Corby.
The issue
Before the opening of a huge steelworks in the 1930s, Corby was just a small village in Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire. After the steelworks arrived, Corby grew quickly and was designated as a New Town. Growth continued through the 1950s and 60s and there was a huge influx of immigrants seeking work, many of whom were from Scotland. However during the 1970s and 1980s UK steel production declined and steelmaking production closed with 11,000 job losses.
Many areas of Corby suffer significant levels of deprivation across the full range of measures. Crime and anti-social behaviour feature particularly prominently in statistics. Perceptions of Corby are poor both locally and nationally.
In their 2006 report, Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour, the National Audit Office (NAO) used official data and crime figures to identify the towns with the worst behaving youngsters. The study showed that nationally, 17 per cent of the population perceived there were high levels of anti-social behaviour in 2005-06, up from 16 per cent for the previous two years.
In Corby, there were nearly 3,000 incidents of criminal damage per 100,000 people during the 2005-06 period, and half its residents believed anti-social behaviour was a big or fairly big problem. The national press branded Corby the ‘yob capital of Britain.’
The Daily Telegraph spoke to a resident of the Kingswood estate in 2006. It reportedly took the unlocking of two bolts, a chain and a Yale lock before Jane Colman could open her front door. “I’ve got five kids and I won’t let them out,” she said, before listing a whole range of crimes plaguing the area. “Arson, firebombs, cars being nicked, motorcycles roaring around, gangs, drunks. Yes, you could say perception of anti-social behaviour around here is high.”
Fear of crime became, and remains, a high priority for Corby Borough Council (CBC) and the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP)
What they did
JAG on your Street is a small but important part of a strategic approach to neighbourhood management in Corby. Since 2006 Corby have introduced a neighbourhood management Structure, have redefined neighbourhood boundaries, and introduced area Joint Action Groups (JAGs). Most recently they have introduced Jag on your Street.
When CBC adopted their Neighbourhood Management Structure, the local strategic partnership (LSP) committed to a neighbourhood management approach to service delivery to support the work of the CDRP. Neighbourhood management in Corby involves three elements: coordination of service delivery, community engagement, and local governance.
Four neighbourhood management teams were developed. Three in urban areas and one in a rural area. CBC worked closely with Northamptonshire Police to ensure the team boundaries fitted with new Neighbourhood Policing Team boundaries. By Consulting with the community the new neighbourhood boundaries fitted with the natural community boundaries recognised by residents.
CBC now has a Community Safety and Neighbourhood Management Team led by the Head of Neighbourhood Pride. Within the structure there are 15 members of staff. Each area has a designated neighbourhood manager, with two neighbourhood wardens, a neighbourhood caretaker, an area based repairs team and generic housing officers. All posts are funded through mainstream council resources. Some areas share their neighbourhood team whereas others have dedicated staff according to need.
Each Joint Action Group (JAG) meets fortnightly to agree actions and monitor progress on neighbourhood priority. These priorities are set by the community every three months at open public meetings. Each of these area JAGs involves representatives of CBC service areas, Northamptonshire Police Safer Community Team, Tenants and Resident Association representatives and local councillors.
The four watches of Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service in Corby each have a responsibility to a neighbourhood. They attend the area JAG for their adopted area and contribute to the action plans. Northamptonshire County Council, the PCT and other partners attend as required to contribute to problem solving. The Council have appointed Community Safety officers with the responsibility of addressing antisocial behaviour in each neighbourhood. These Community Safety Officers are an integral part of the Community Safety and Neighbourhood Management Team. CBC also contributes to the costs of employing Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs).
A task list used at the area JAG meetings shows the priorities that have been identified by the community. Within each of these, tasks are identified and results recorded. For example, at the South Corby JAG on 2 June 2009, the task list showed the priorities that came from the 1 April public consultation as being litter/rubbish (138 votes), criminal damage (100 votes) and speeding (100 votes). Tasks scheduled included a series of walkabouts and focused working in the hotspot areas by wardens. Times and dates are recorded.
To maintain the partnership and ensure joint priorities reflect local needs, regular community meetings are held and information is gathered through meeting and talking to residents during patrols. All patrol staff complete “interaction cards which record and feed the information back to the area JAG.
The JAG on your street initiative was introduced to engage even more residents. Instead of asking people to come to organised meetings, JAG members go to meet residents on their street. They hear first hand what they can do to help improve residents’ quality of life. The first JAG on your Street was held in the South Neighbourhood area on the Kingswood estate. JAG meetings are held at times to suit residents or when intelligence points to a particular problem happening.
Staff, local residents and local councillors attend meetings. Flyers are sent out to inform residents about meetings two weeks before hand. Individual streets are discussed in detail and there is a walkabout to look at the problems. Any concerns the community have are brought up, recorded and fed to the relevant person to be dealt with usually through the area JAGs. The South area neighbourhood manager said that these JAGs “focus attention on live issues and “go to the heart of the problem.
One of the benefits of this approach is that those intent on damaging the community see significant numbers of residents confident enough to come out onto the streets and work with agency representatives. This is a powerful and overt message of unity. The initiative is valued by residents and also by their elected representatives. “The small number of people who cause the problems can see people talking to their community (Senior Neighbourhood Manager).
The issues that are raised vary and range from broken lighting to untidy gardens, graffiti or anti-social behaviour. In one area, there was a hotspot of litter and antisocial behaviour. Information was received about “problem youths on a school route. A JAG on your Street was held at a time when the children were going home from school. The group were able to talk to the young people and they could see the wardens, police and council officers. The litter was the full length of the parade and the JAG on your Street identified that the young people were going into the shops, coming out and dropping the litter. The JAG partners went in to talk to the shop managers and owners and talked to the young people themselves.
The impact
An effective working relationship has developed at neighbourhood level between council and police through shared boundaries. Wardens and PCSOs regularly conduct joint patrols in hotspot areas at relevant times. Moving closer to the community has increased the ability to gather useful intelligence and build a comprehensive understanding of local problems.
The priorities identified through the JAGs have become a focus for partners within each area. Tasking logs are maintained and monitored to assess progress. Community priorities have predominantly focused on “safer and cleaner issues. Motorcycle nuisance, youth’s activities, street drinking and fly tipping and litter have consistently featured in all neighbourhoods. Common priorities across all JAGs are passed on for discussion and strategic action in the CDRP.
To reduce graffiti many walls in hotspot areas have been painted colours sympathetic to their surroundings. Graffiti appearing on these walls are quickly over-painted by caretakers. It has been found that graffiti perpetrators give up after their writing has been repainted thee or four times. Our “we’ve got more paint than you or zero tolerance strategy seems to be working.
Ward members involved in JAGS have made significant contributions in a number of ways.
- Contributing resources made available to each member through the council’s Leadership Fund
- Their local knowledge has provided community intelligence
- Raising the profile of specific problems as and when appropriate
- Providing feedback mechanism to communities through their dialogue with constituents.
Barriers, challenges, lessons
The barriers, challenges and lessons relate to:
- Private landlords
- Overcoming communication barriers
- Using intelligence.
Social housing providers have been easy to engage and have worked with the JAGS.Private landlords have been much more difficult to engage and hold to account. It can be difficult to find out who they are and to contact them. This problem has been exacerbated by cheap Corby property prices proving attractive to buy to let landlords..
The Senior Neighbourhood Manager said that opening the lines of communication between service delivery partners and the community has been the most significant challenge to overcome and the most beneficial. As a consequence, everyone has been able justify allocating resources to this approach. The Home Office “weeks of action for instance made a really important contribution to the approach and were another way of gathering community views and delivering responses.
The access to improved intelligence has been critical. Compass, the partnership community profiling and problem solving resource for Northamptonshire, funded by top slicing the LSP budget, were able to provide analysis of the findings from the questionnaire used during the Kingswood Week of Action(so what difference did this make?). This analysis enablesneighbourhood management teams to be intelligence led and to feedback progress to the community.
The Community Safety and Neighbourhood Management Team emphasised that feeding back to residents was critical to success. The Senior Neighbourhood Manager says this must mean telling residents “what’s happening, what’s been addressed, how and why or why not. Currently the feedback process is being refined with the aim that individuals within communities that raise an issue can receive feedback personally.
Evidence and data
The JAG initiatives have fed in to a coordinated approach to tackling anti-social behaviour. There is an anti-social behaviour action group. The group is ensuring diversionary activities are occurring during peak offending, anti-social behaviour times. The group has mapped existing youth projects to understand current provision including times. Following the mapping exercise the group decided to provide a comprehensive programme of activities during the 6 week summer holidays. A gap was identified for 13-19 year olds. Analysis of statistics during the summer school holidays for the previous year highlighted the peak anti-social behaviour times between 6 and 9 pm so activities for 13-19 year olds were provided at these times. Activities were targeted at the antisocial behaviour hotspots identified through the JAG.
Analysis showed there was a significant reduction of antisocial behaviour in these places as a result and the programme was repeated again this year. An extension is being planned to cover all holidays and out of school periods.
A further partnership project was developed to tackle the complaint that “there is nothing to do around here by developing and publicising a website of youth activities. Detail from this is printed out and carried by patrolling staff and handed to young people as appropriate.
- In 2007/08 there were 1000 fewer victims of crime than the previous year
- There were 22 per cent fewer reported incidents of anti-social behaviour, 2200 fewer reported in past 12 months
- There has been a reduction in criminal damage of 14 per cent which means 300 fewer victims
- There has been a 41 per cent reduction in arson in Corby over the past three years.
The joint working approach is having an impact for all the partners involved. For instance at a recent JAG initiative 40 people were identified as not having smoke detectors so were referred to the fire service for a free home safety check. Thefir service would not otherwise have been able to assist these residents.
The most compelling evidence of impact is provided by the recently published Northamptonshire Neighbourhood survey, an independent countywide study in its second year of research. This year it found that in Corby 61 per cent agreed that the Council and Police were effectively tackling antisocial behaviour and 66 per cent were satisfied with their area.
Contact
Vicki Rockall – Community Safety Manager
Fred Scholey – Senior Neighbourhood Manager
Craig Spence – Area Neighbourhood Manager
telephone: 01536 464 647
Address:
Neighbourhood Management and Community Safety Team
Corby Borough Council
1st Floor Deene House
New Post Office Square
Corby
Northants
NN17 1G
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