Bristol's burglary hotspots to get walkabout visits
A series of Safer Bristol ‘walkabouts’ are taking place in Bristol’s burglary hotspots as part of an ongoing drive to reduce break-ins in the areas. Redland and neighbouring Cotham, Bishopston, Montpelier and Ashley Down, is a priority area as it accounts for 20 percent of the burglaries in Bristol but has just 10 percent of the city’s houses.
Safer Bristol, the partnership of agencies working together to make the city safer, has organised the walkabouts in a bid to drive down opportunist burglaries and reduce fear of crime in the area. Designed to identify areas of improvement, the walkabouts are taking place in specific streets identified as being especially vulnerable.
Co-ordinated by Safer Bristol, the walkabouts include representatives from many of the city’s key agencies, including the Police and Bristol City Council’s Clean and Green Team and Housing Department. Together they walk around the areas actively looking for areas of improvement and searching for any houses that may be at risk of burglary. Steps can then be taken to secure houses and improve the community.
As well as providing residents with a reassuring presence, they are also on hand to offer advice and guidance and after each walkabout an action plan is developed to find a solution to the problems that have been noticed.
Georgie Bryant, the Community Safety Officer behind the scheme said: “By organising these walkabouts as a multi-agency approach, we can all share the problems in the target areas and together ensure that solutions are found quickly. “The walkabouts are a great way to get right to the root of the problem and build community confidence. We want to encourage residents to get out on the streets with us and really make a difference to the safety of their community.
“At a recent PACT meeting (Partners and Communities Together) residents from Redland, Cotham and Bishopston voted to make burglary a PACT Priority which highlights the significance of the issue in the community.”
Five walkabouts have already been completed in the area with another two planned in September.
During the walkabouts residents can either join the team on the streets or display a flyer which will have been posted through their door prior to the event. The team will then visit their homes to offer advice and assistance.
Action taken following the initial walkabouts has included graffiti being cleaned in Ashley Down and the removal of an abandoned vehicle in Bishopston. Advisory letters were also sent to home owners who had overgrown gardens in Redland and Cotham as this may give burglars the opportunity to hide. Street lighting was reviewed in most areas and alley gates are being added to a number of lanes in Redland to stop burglars accessing properties from rear entrances.
The walkabouts also resulted in visits from the Safer Homes Vans to properties that were seen as being at risk of burglary.
The vans, funded by Bristol City Council, are driven by skilled carpenters employed by Avon and Somerset Constabulary to fit basic home security improvements free of charge, such as locks, bolts, door-chains, viewers and window locks. They usually work on a referrals-only basis but are proactive in Redland and surrounding areas.
Councillor Gary Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Environment and Community Safety, said: “By tackling these issues together Safer Bristol, the Police and Council staff can make far more of an impact in ensuring that actions are taken to reduce the risk of burglary. Schemes such as the Safer Homes Vans are dramatically cutting the problems of repeat burglary in areas like Redland. “Through the partners working together we are taking a proactive approach to improve the security of local communities and can work towards Safer Bristol’s vision of building public confidence and making Bristol a safer place to live.”
The walkabouts are just one part of a wider strategy to combat burglary in Redland. A five-year plan was launched in 2007 to reduce crime in the hotspot which aims to inform all residents on how to make their homes safer and to have a proactive police force on the streets as a deterrent to would-be burglars. There has already been a 21 per cent drop in burglaries throughout the area since the scheme started, on target to reduce burglary by 50 per cent by 2012.
DCI Liz Tunks from Bristol Police said: “The ‘walkabouts’ have been a great success. They show the communities that we are proactively dealing with the situation and taking as many preventative steps as possible to ensure that people in these hotpots have a lesser chance of becoming a victim.”
