Crime and community safety are key concerns for communities, even in low crime areas, such as the High Peak.
It affects many people in a variety of ways, be it fear of crime, experiencing nuisance or being a victim of crime. A safe community is central to the quality of life and contributes to the High Peak being a place where people want to live, work and visit.
The complex issues of crime and community safety can only be tackled when agencies, organisations, businesses and communities work together in partnership.
Since 1998, High Peak Borough Council has been a leading partner on the High Peak Community Safety Partnership. The High Peak community safety partnership sets priorities, manages resources and monitors the activity of the partnership.
The Community Safety Team, pictured above, right, undertakes the day-to-day work of the partnership. The team is based at the Council’s Offices at Chinley, and includes a community safety officer, anti-social behaviour officer and a police sergeant seconded to the department.
High Peak Community Safety Partnership has recently produced its 2008-2011 Partnership Plan (391KB) which includes action plans to tackle anti-social behaviour, violence and acquisitive crime (which includes vehicle crime and burglary).
Safer Neighbourhoods Teams (SNTs) provide communities with a dedicated team of officers who are visible, accessible and known to local people. They work closely with partner agencies (statutory and voluntary) and the local community to tackle the crime and disorder concerns and issues identified within the neighbourhood.
You can get involved by attending your local Safer Neighbourhood Team meetings. (External website**)
Kidscape helps keep children safe. They offer free leaflets and booklets about safety, bullying, teenagers and other issues. To help protect your children please visit the Kidscape website (External website**)
A dispersal order enables the police to disperse groups of two or more people where the officer has reasonable grounds for believing that their presence or behaviour has resulted, or is likely to result, in a member of the public being harassed, intimidated, alarmed or distressed. Once asked to disperse, it will be a criminal offence for that person to return to the dispersal area for a 24-hour period.
If a young person under the age of 16 is stopped in the area after 9pm and is not accompanied by an adult, the police can escort them to their home address, if they are either:
The High Peak has four alcohol exclusion zones where it is illegal to drink alcohol outside of licensed premises. These are Gamesley, Glossop, New Mills and Buxton. The police can impose fines on anyone caught drinking in public. A recent evaluation of the New Mills order found that it greatly contributed to reducing the number of assaults and public order offences.
| Alcohol Exclusion Zone |
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The Home Office has a 'Justice Seen, Justice Done' website (External website**) that provides the public with local information about the criminal justice system.
By entering your postcode you can get information about different aspects of the CJS, including:
Comparing January-March 2009 with January-March 2010, all crime in the High Peak is down by 16% (221 fewer incidents), domestic burglary is down by 19% and vehicle crime is down by 37%.
Due to the economic climate there is a concern that domestic burglary may become a problem. To help protect yourself please visit the Home Office website (External website**) to view the Governments new burglary pack. This has been published to help the public take simple preventative steps to protect their home.
To obtain your FREE hard copy of the Burglary reduction pack, please call the Home Office on 0800 456 1213. The new pack contains:
The pack is only available in hard copy, not online.
As money gets tight, more and more people may be tempted to turn to quick fix loans from illegal money lenders.
This can quickly lead to more debt and a feeling that there's nowhere to turn - until now. Derbyshire County Council's trading standards team is working closely with East Midlands illegal money lending unit the Public Protection Project Team to crack down on loan sharks who prey on vulnerable people. The team works with voluntary groups such as Victim Support, Citizens Advice and Credit Unions to provide support to victims of loan sharks. It also enforces the law by making arrests and putting loan sharks in prison.
If you have been stung by a loan shark and want to report your concerns, or you'd like advice and information you can call the Public Protection Project Team's confidential helpline 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 01332 644 000.
On 26 January 2009, cannabis was reclassified up from a Class C to a Class B drug. To find out why cannabis has been reclassified and how the new cannabis laws will be enforced please click on the link below.
www.talktofrank.com (External website**)
** Please note: High Peak Borough Council is not responsible for the content of any external websites.