Citizen's Panel Newsletter

Summer 2007

Download a full colour copy of the newsletter 639.95 KB

Welcome to the latest Citizens' Panel newsletter. In this edition we let you know the findings from the summer survey. Topics include public spaces such as civic squares and markets in Tameside, involvement in the local community, crime and anti-social behaviour, policing and alcohol.

Public Spaces

The Council feels that high quality and attractive public spaces such as civic squares and markets in Tameside can bring benefits to quality of life, community cohesion and civic pride. The Council would like to encourage more local people to use public spaces for sitting and relaxing, spending time with friends and for public entertainment.

Most (88%) of the Panel agree with the Council's approach of building new public spaces as part of new developments and two-thirds of panel members are satisfied with the quality of public spaces. The main reasons why panel members say they use public spaces in Tameside are for shopping (75%), walking through to get somewhere else (52%) and for somewhere to go that is close to home (41%).

The Council will continue to build more public spaces as part of new developments such as Droylsden Marina. The Council will also make improvements to existing public spaces such as Ashton Market Hall.

The Council will make sure that public spaces in Tameside are:

• Clean (99% of panel members say this is important in encouraging people to spend time in public spaces)
• Well maintained (99% say this is important)
• Safe (97% say this is important)
• Giving local people a pleasant environment (96% say this is important)
• Making people feel better about where they live (95% say this is important).

Community Involvement

The Council works closely with Tameside Third Sector Coalition (T3SC) to encourage local people to get involved in decision-making and take part in the life of their community.

The majority of panel members have never heard of T3SC, but almost half want to know more about the organisation and the different voluntary and community groups in Tameside.

One-third of panel members feel that they can influence decisions affecting their local area.

The Council wants residents to get involved in local-decision making by sitting on community forums or decision-making partnerships. The Council and T3SC have set themselves a joint target of increasing the number of residents who feel they can influence decisions.

Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour

The Council recognises that low levels of crime and anti-social behaviour and feeling safe on the streets are among the most important things to local residents in making Tameside a good place to live.

Encouragingly, 95% of panel members say they feel safe in their local neighbourhood during the day, while 91% feel safe in their local town centre during the day.

Panel members were asked which crimes worry them the most. As is shown in the graph, the greatest concern for panel members relates to having their homes broken into.

The crimes that worry panel members the most:

• Having your home broken into and something stolen.- 32%
• Witnessing gangs of people in the streets - 16%
• Being mugged and robbed - 13%
• Being physically attacked by strangers - 9%
• Witnessing people dealing drugs in the street - 8%
• Having your car stolen - 6%
• Having your property damaged - 5%
• Fly tipping - 3%
• Something stolen from your car - 3%
• Insulted or pestered by anybody while in the street - 3%

80% of panel members feel that parents not taking responsibility for the behaviour of their children is a problem in their local area. Many panel members also identified support for families and parents as being one way of dealing with anti-social behaviour in Tameside.

The Council will continue to work with partner organisations such as the Police to introduce community safety initiatives such as alley-gating, campaigns to raise awareness about bogus callers and providing information in the local press about how to prevent burglary.

The Council will be introducing a Parenting Strategy called 'Parent Power' that will offer a range of support to families around parenting, household skills, behaviour management and more. The Council will also consider making use of newly introduced Parenting Orders legislation.

The Council's Community Safety Team will continue to work closely with the police to reduce the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour in Tameside and make the borough an even safer place to live. Recently released crime statistics show a 7% drop in all police recorded crime in Tameside, compared to a 1% increase across Greater Manchester.

For more information about this work, and for tips on how to prevent your home being burgled please visit the 'Community Safety' section of the Council's website.

Neighbourhood Policing

The Council and Police have recently introduced Neighbourhood Teams of police officers, Police Community Support Officers and Tameside Patrollers to deal with local problems in each of Tameside's wards.

Panel members generally agree that Neighbourhood Teams understand the issues that affect the local community (40% agreed that this is the case, compared to 16% who disagreed). However, a significant number of panel members felt unable to say whether they think Neighbourhood Teams understand the local community and focus on the issues that matter to local people. This may be because the Neighbourhood Teams are new to Tameside.

The Council will work to raise awareness of Neighbourhood Teams and would like to encourage local residents to attend monthly PACT (Police and Communities Together) meetings in their local area.

Alcohol

The Council works to promote sensible drinking and reduce the negative impacts of alcohol on individuals, families and communities.

87% of panel members say they are aware of government guidelines on sensible drinking. Wine is the most popular drink among panel members (55% had drunk at least one unit of wine in the week prior to the survey). Only a very small minority of panel members said that they had drunk an amount of alcohol over the government recommendations in the week before receiving the questionnaire.

The Council will continue to work with other organisations like the health service to encourage sensible drinking and offer support to people who may be experiencing problems with alcohol. It will also work with schools on information campaigns about sensible drinking and the potential harm caused to individuals and communities by drinking too much alcohol. You may also have seen undercover licensing enforcement officers checking that shops don't sell alcohol to underage drinkers in the recent ITV programme 'The Consumer Police'.

If you have any comments, ideas or queries about the Citizens' Panel please contact:

Jonathon Blackburn tel: 0161 342 3529