Street wardens are now in place in the Trent Bridge and West Bridgford areas on Friday and Saturday afternoons and evenings to further tackle anti-social behaviour following a funding boost to make streets even safer.
The Home Office unveiled Safer Streets in January 2020, opening a new £25m fund to make the streets of England and Wales safer.
The project aims to help police and crime commissioners, local authorities and their partners secure extra resources and tools to prevent street crime, especially burglaries, robberies and vehicle crimes.
It’s thanks to a successful bid earlier this year by the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry, Nottinghamshire Police and Rushcliffe Borough Council to the Home Office’s Safer Streets scheme.
West Bridgford is the safest medium-sized town in Nottinghamshire, and is the 74th most dangerous overall out of Nottinghamshire’s 236 towns, villages, and cities.
The overall crime rate in West Bridgford in 2021 was 48 crimes per 1,000 people.
This compares favourably to Nottinghamshire’s overall crime rate, coming in 37% lower than the Nottinghamshire rate of 76 per 1,000 residents.
For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as a whole, West Bridgford is the 22nd safest medium-sized town, and the 3,637th most dangerous location out of all towns, cities, and villages.
Officers from the Council’s contractors, the same business which manages littering in the borough, are now patrolling every weekend dealing with the impact of street drinking, substance misuse and aggressive begging on Central Avenue, Bridgford Road and parts of Loughborough Road and Radcliffe Road and other local streets.
They will also target lowering anti-social behaviour and being a visible presence to deter other criminal activity such as vehicle crime and shoplifting and there will also be a renewed focus on keeping businesses and members of the public safer.
Funding is invested in “hotspot” areas that are persistently and disproportionately affected by crime and qualify for extra help to make the community safer.
As well as having powers to issue fixed penalty notices, the wardens will gather evidence of anti-social behaviour and criminal activity and report incidents to Nottinghamshire Police and Rushcliffe Inspector Rob Lawton’s team for further action.
Securing over £250,000 of investment in the scheme, in addition to the new patrols the project will explore installation of new CCTV in the area and further ANPR cameras to alert police to vehicles of interest.
They will be eyes and ears on the ground on the streets to complement the work of neighbourhood police officers and build on the warden’s current role of assisting the Council in continuing the clamp down on littering and fly-tipping in Rushcliffe.
Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry said: “What’s great about Safer Streets funding is that it means a large amount of extra resource to complement the great work that Nottinghamshire Police and Rushcliffe Borough Council are engaged in every day to keep people safe.
“The Safer Streets wardens will provide extra visibility and reassurance, with the power to fine street drinkers causing antisocial behaviour, and to support their police and council colleagues by reporting any crime they see.
“We are looking at CCTV cameras installed at key locations to keep people safe and deter criminality, while we will also be able to fund automatic number plate recognition cameras that allow police to track criminals on local roads.
“There will also be a range of safety measures to prevent burglary, robbery, violence and vehicle crime.
“Safer Streets is all about preventing neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls, and I’m sure this package of measures being implemented in the Trent Bridge ward will have a big impact on each of these areas.”
Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Environment and Safety Cllr Rob Inglis added: “This extra resource is being put into place to ensure that everyone can enjoy visiting the area and it will make a real difference to improving safety on the streets of West Bridgford and the Trent Bridge areas at weekends even further.
“We are reassuring residents and visitors these are safe places to visit but having more uniformed officers on hand will help deal with any issues quickly and effectively.
“By sharing information and working closely with Police and partners, the street wardens will boost our existing network of support and make these streets safer.”
Inspector Rob Lawton, Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for Rushcliffe, said: “Working with our partners to keep people safe remains our top priority and these new wardens will help us to achieve that aim.
“They will serve as another set of eyes and ears as we all work together to keep the area a great place to live, work and visit.”
