Gleadless Valley Safer Neighbourhood Team – August 2010 news

Dear Resident, 

We have been busy tackling the issues that matter most to you. The latest PACT meeting was held at Morrisons Supermarket on 27th August. As a result of this meeting and other engagement activity over the past month we have listened to your views and ammended the PACT priorities. These are now;

 Gleadless Valley/Heeley SNT

1. Anti-social behaviour in Graves Park in the vicinity of the Rose Garden cafe – This is as a result of a number of complaints concerning underage drinking at that location

 2. Anti-social behaviour in Meersbrook Park.

 3. Anti-social behaviour on Gaunt shops, Blackstock Road.

 Woodseats SNT

1. Anti-social behaviour Archer Road – This relates to issues in the vicinity of Aldi and Sainsbury’s and specifically young people drinking in the allotment site on Perriwood Estate at the rear of Aldi.

 2. Anti-social behaviour on Jordanthorpe precinct

 3. Anti-social behaviour on Hemper Lane at Greenhill.

In addition to tackling Anti-social behaviour and PACT priorities the following are some of the positive results we have had in August

1. Lowedges Week of Action took place between 9th and 13th August and concluded with the Lowedges festival in Greenhill Park on Sunday 15th August. This event was very well attended with over 9000 people packed into the park all having fun. The Sheffield telegraph described the event as ” the sort of festival summers are made of”. A big thanks should go to the organisers for putting together such a fantastic community event.

Throughout the week of Action both SNA staff and partners were out in the community tackling the issues identified by local residents making Lowedges a safer, cleaner and greener place to live. In particular the “back path” as it is known locally was strimmed and cleaned by streetforce who removed over 30 bags of rubbish. They are also in the process of fixing the street lighting along the path which has been broken for some time. A community skip was in place on Gresley Rd and general environmental improvements were made across the estate.

Police Officers were out in force all week. We had mounted officers on patrol on 11th August along with colleagues from the traffic department undertaking ANPR operations. A number of search warrants were executed. In addition as a direct result of complaints from the public we used our mobile speed camera on Lowedges Road resulting in a number of prosecutions for speeding. If you looked closely you may even have seen my Chief Inspector on patrol with the speed gun.

Partners from the fire service were in the area conducting home fire safety assessments. The ” Week of Action” model continues to develop and deliver real improvements for local people. Next stop Batemoor and Jordonthorpe next week.

2. We have executed a number of drugs warrants in the past month specifically at Lowedges Place, Lowedges Road and Chesterfield Road. Some of these investigations are as a direct result of information provided by the public. Please if you have information about drug dealing in your area either let us know directly or contact Crime Stoppers on 0800 555111. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence and will be investigated.

3. Anti-Social Behaviour – The number of calls to the Police regarding anti-social behaviour are now 16% lower than they were 12 months ago. In the year to date there have been 4,323 incidents compared to 5.123 last year. I acknowledge that this figure is still too high and there is work to be done however significantly we are now 6th highest out of 9 SNA’s across the city. 12 months ago we were 3rd. A massive improvement. The section 30 orders continue to be an effective deterrant and are in force until 7th November. There have been a number of arrests last month for quality of life issues, a male was arrested on Lowededges for Graffiti and another in the Derby Street area for criminal damage to communal windows on one of the blocks.

A new process has been adopted across Sheffield which will provide an improved service to repeat and vulnerable victims of anti-social behaviour. We are always looking for ways to improve our service delivery.

We seized two nuisance motor cycles this month. One on Eastbank Rd and the other Chesterfield Rd. In addition we seized alcohol from young people drinking on Lowedges Rd on 13th August and Westwick Crescent on 3rd September. This months test purchase operation resulted in 13 off licences tested with 2 failures.

 4. Restorative Justice – I have mentioned before in this newsletter the value of restorative justice and community justice panels. There have now been over 400 cases dealt with by this method across the city. A recent case in Bradway involved a young man guilty of criminal damage. The panel gave the offender an opportunity to apologise directly to the victim and the victim was paid £160 compensation. More importantly everyone was happy with the outcome.

 5.Licensing Issues – I am responsible for monitoring all issues with licenced premises across the SNA. We work closely with colleagues in the council to address issues as they arise. I would encourage anyone who has concerns regarding any pubs to contact me directly. An example……..I have received a number of calls concerning a pub in Woodseats, after hours drinking and ASB. I have arranged a meeting at the pub this Thursday with the manager and a representative from the brewery. We will closely monitor events and have the power to review the licence and impose conditions if necessary. In extreme cases I can apply for a closure order. This would always be a last resort and we look to work with the management at any given premises to resolve issues first. As always we need information on which to act.

6. More serious crime – Colleagues within CID have again had some good success this month. There has been a focus on Burglary this month with a proactive Operation targeting Burglars operation across the City. Operation Yeoman has been running for the past 6 weeks and has had notable sucess both in terms of crime reduction and detection. Fifteen prominant Burglars have been arrested for a variety of offences of Burglary this month. An offender at Albert Road was charged following a shoe print match at the scene. On another occaion following an investigation a local male has been charged with conspiracy to commit Burglaries in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire after being arrested for 6 x 2 in 1 offences (2 in 1 is where a Burglary committed and the owners car is stolen). On another occasion two offenders from Lowedges have been charged and remanded to prison for committing Burgaries in the Meadowhead area. Finally a team of Burglars from Gleadless Valley have been arrested and charged with a number of offences across the South of Sheffield.

 Forthcoming Events

 1. Batemoor/Jordonthorpe Week of Action will be held next week. 20th – 25th September

 2. National alcohol week is taking place between 18th and 24th October. We are planning a number of activities for the week around tackling under age drinking. I have negotaited with partners to run an Operation Staysafe on both 22nd October in the Meadowhead area and 5th November in Gleadless Valley. Staysafe is a nationally recognised strategy for dealing with vulnerable young people which was started by Merseyside Police in 2009. For more detail see the following link http://www.westmercia.police.uk/news/news-articles/operation-staysafe-ta…

3. Operation Dark Nights – Haloween and Bonfire Night 2010 – I am currently planning our Operations for this period. There will be an emphasis of diversionary activities for young people with street based teams working in the area from 4th October to 15th November. During this period we will run a number of operations specifically targeting ASB.

The Gleadless Valley Safer Neighbourhood Team is ready to tackle issues that affect people’s day-to-day lives, like criminal damage and nuisance behaviour. Besides simply responding to incidents, the team works with the communities they serve to pinpoint problems and try to find long-term solutions. They aim to reduce local crime, bring more offenders to justice, and address quality of life issues through a problem-solving approach with communities.

You can contact us using our 24 hour voicemail service on 0114 296 3680. Alternatively you can call 101, the Sheffield non-emergency number, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

(if reporting a crime please contact SYP on 0114 2202020)

Remember only use 999 for emergencies

 http://neighbourhood.southyorkshire.police.uk/sheffield/gleadless-woodseats/gleadless