ONE WARRINGTON: ONE FUTURE
WHERE EVERYONE MATTERS                                                                

A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY STRATEGY
FOR WARRINGTON 2009 TO 2030

SAFE AND STRONG

Where people are active and supportive in their communities, feel safe and can live free from crime and anti-social behaviour

Key strengths

Warrington’s communities are cohesive with 85% of people saying that people from different backgrounds get on well together and 83% agreeing that ethnic differences are respected in their local areas. There is also high satisfaction with neighbourhoods as a place to live with 76% of the borough’s population satisfied with their neighbourhoods.

We have an active and well-regarded voluntary and community sector (also known as the third sector) with around 1,100 organisations and over 22,000 registered volunteers providing a range of services, large and small, to people and communities in need. Much of their work is involved in enhancing the capacity of communities to be self-supporting. The statutory agencies are also working together more effectively within communities to build capacity by, for example, encouraging them to join residents’ associations, community events and sharing knowledge and skills between community groups.

Our pilot neighbourhood management project is working well and has delivered improvements in residents’ satisfaction levels in its first year, with a much larger percentage feeling that:

• They can influence decisions taken by local organisations (50% in 2008, up from 32% in 2007);
• Progress is being made on key issues such as vandalism and graffiti (a drop from 52% to 43% thinking these things are a problem in their area).

Statistically, Warrington is a relatively safe place to live when compared to similar areas. We have had significant success over the last year in reducing all crime by over 11%, including reductions of almost 20% in incidences of criminal damage and domestic burglary, in part attributable to an extremely successful prolific offenders’ scheme. An action plan has been developed to tackle excessive alcohol consumption in the town centre and a town centre policing unit has been established.

Challenges and opportunities

The third sector is key to delivering cohesive, empowered and engaged communities by helping them develop a voice, increasing the confidence and ability of individuals and small groups to get involved in activities that can bind communities together and ensuring that local communities can properly influence and deliver services. A recent independent review of the sector in Warrington has identified a need for better and more co-ordinated support to enable the sector to thrive.

There remains an element of a north-south divide in Warrington, which largely stems from its historical split along the lines of the Manchester Ship Canal into Lancashire to the north and Cheshire to the south. We need to tackle this to ensure Warrington is one community with a sense of pride in the borough, as well as in local neighbourhoods.

Only 27% of residents expressed satisfaction with opportunities to participate in decision making. Our challenge is to improve real engagement with communities and demonstrate to them that they can influence and shape the future of their locality. The role of local councillors is of great importance in acting as a community leader and maximising opportunities for their constituents. Also, building on the successes and lessons learned from the pilot project, we started rolling out neighbourhood management and co-ordination across the borough during 2008, creating six Area Boards with significant community representation. This initiative will be key to our ambition of building safe, strong and flourishing communities in Warrington.

Despite the relatively low crime levels and the overall improvements to safety in the borough, there is still more to do to further reduce reoffending rates, tackle the misuse of drugs and alcohol and ensure that we continue to detect and punish crime appropriately. In Warrington, as elsewhere in the country, fear of crime continues to limit people’s quality of life and there are some parts of the borough which are experiencing higher levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.

The recent strategic needs assessment has allowed us to identify the specific community safety problems being experienced in different neighbourhoods, which will lead to more effective targeting of resources and initiatives. The common issue of primary concern identified by residents across the borough is anti-social behaviour. The map above shows how crime and disorder levels vary across the borough. The inner wards, the north west and some parts of the east of the borough tend to be most affected by crime.

Our priorities for action

Priority	Things we will do
Increase community involvement and responsibility	- Develop neighbourhood management and co-ordination throughout the borough - Make it easier for people to influence decisions that affect their local area and the services they receive - Establish neighbourhood hubs - Where appropriate, encourage community groups to take ownership of community facilities - Encourage communities to be responsible for their own events and organisations
Guard against threats to community cohesion	- Work with communities to promote acceptance and celebration of cultural diversity - Monitor and act on hate crime - Work with communities to provide factual information on new communities to prevent negative rumours and mistrust developing - Make more of Warrington's history to create a sense of community pride and bring communities together
Enable a thriving voluntary and community sector	- Provide increased and better co-ordinated support to voluntary organisations - Develop the third sector policy group to strengthen the sector's involvement and influence in policy and decision making - Review and develop service commissioing arrangements with third sector involvement
Reduce anti-social behaviour	- Tackle estate-based anti-social behaviour by supporting early intervention initiatives - Tackle drug use and drug dealing in the central area of the town - Reduce criminal damage and deliberate property fires in the central and east areas
Reduce violent and acquisitive crime	- Reduce alcohol-realted violent offences in the town centre - Reduce repeat victimes of domestic abuse

Our long term targets

By 2030, the proportion of people who feel they can influence decisions in their locality will be in the top 10% nationally.

By 2030, the overall crime rate (total offences per 1000 population) will be 20% below the national average.

Closing the gaps

By 2030, we will halve the number of SOAs in the worst 20% nationally on the crime deprivation index.

How will we know we are making progress?

The following measures will help us keep track of progress:

• The percentage of people who say people from different backgrounds get on well together*
• The percentage of people who feel they can influence decisions in their local area*
• The percentage of people who feel they belong to Warrington and to their local neighbourhood*
• Environment for a thriving third sector (opinion survey of the third sector organisations)
• Number of people volunteering*
• Voter turnout in local elections*
• Serious acquisitive and violent crime rates*
• Public perception of how well anti-social behaviour and crime is being dealt with by the council and police*
• Fear of crime.*

* will also be monitored at area/neighbourhood level to focus our improvements on ‘closing the gaps’.

Project and action plans relevant to this ambition include:

• The Neighbourhoods Project Plan
• Safer Warrington Strategic Assessment and Partnership Plan
• Community Cohesion Action Plan
• Third Sector Review Action Plan
• Neighbourhood Plans.

How you can help

• Report crime and anti-social behaviour and support your local police and community support officers
• Become a special constable or volunteer with the local police force to enable more officers to be released to the frontline
• Get involved in neighbourhood forums and action groups
• Mentor a young person
• Use your vote and give your views to your local councillor or MP on issues that are important to you
• Volunteer with a local community group
• Be a good neighbour and help elderly or infirm neighbours with shopping, gardening and transport
• If you are a business, get involved in the local community and encourage your employees to volunteer

Contents     < Back     Next >