Tunstall ARZ passed part II - What happens next?
During the consultation there were 101 responses of which:50 responses were in support of the proposed Designated...
During the consultation there were 101 responses of which:
- 50 responses were in support of the proposed Designated Public Place Order
- 2 responses were against the proposed Designated Public Place Order
- 3 responses were neither in support of, or against the proposed Designated Public Place Order
- 43 responses were in support of the proposed Designated Public Place Order, but felt that the area included in the Order should be increased to include the Greenfields Estate area.
- 3 responses included representations made in support of the Alcohol restriction Zone, but highlighted other streets that they wished to be included. Of note was one relating to a forthcoming work of art called "Golden" to be sited where the Potteries Pyramid currently stands; this is expected to be completed by May 2012.
Out of the 43 responses requesting that the proposed Designated Public Place Order area to be extended to include the Greenfields Estate area, 37 of these were from members of the congregation of ‘Christ Church’ and there were 6 other representations made from members of the community.
Consideration was given to seeking authorisation from the Licensing and General Purposes Committee to begin further consultation in the Greenfields Estate area and the area where “Golden” is to be sited. However, evidence from the Police does not sufficiently support that there is alcohol-related nuisance and annoyance as there have been only 3 incidents logged in the last
12 months.
Joint Operations Group meetings take place on a monthly basis in the North, Centre and South of the City. They were established to enable multi-agency partners to work together to problem solve, decision make, allocate resources based on need and identify and tackle risks and vulnerabilities within the local community.
It is proposed that the Northern Area Joint Operations Group will ensure that via an Action Plan the activity in the proposed area will be regularly monitored and that, in particular, any risk of displacement to neighbouring areas will be identified, implementing actions as appropriate to mitigate against such a risk.
The Local Policing Team Commander for the Northern Local Policing Team has been consulted and offers their full support for the implementation of a Designated Public Place Order. They have pledged to provide resources to police the area if the scheme is implemented. This will involve uniformed Police Officers and Police Community Support Officers undertaking frequent and regular targeted patrols within the areas covered with a view to ensuring compliance with the order.
The Area Housing Manager for the Northern Area has been consulted on the proposal and has offered his full support for the Designated Public Place Order.
So What Next?
Now that approval is granted for the implementation of the Designated Public Place Order in the area , the Safer City Partnership will arrange for the statutory notice to be displayed in the local press to coincide with the completion of the assembly of sufficient signage in Tunstall in order to draw the public’s attention to the approved Order.
The Safer City Partnership will collect data and evaluate the effectiveness of the order. The Northern Joint Operations Group meeting will allow the activity in the area to be regularly monitored and will particularly monitor any risk of displacement to neighbouring areas, implementing action as appropriate to mitigate against this risk.
The Northern Joint Operations Group will develop and own an Action Plan in order to monitor the effectiveness of the proposed order. This Action Plan will include the use of the PIER problem solving approach, (Prevention, Intelligence, Enforcement, and Reassurance). Actions will include:
- An Alcohol Services outreach strategy
- A robust policing strategy and effective monitoring of the crime data in order to reduce the risk of displacement.
- Monitoring the effectiveness of the Designated Public Place Order through discussions at the Joint Operations Group Meeting and data to be provided to the Safer City Partnership for evaluation.
- Joined up approaches to tackling breaches of the Designated Public Place Order and repeat offending.
- Press releases and briefings for residents meetings.
The Safer City Partnership will produce a press release and a factsheet for members of the public to reassure them of the Order and to clarify the expectations of this order. This factsheet would be distributed to members of the public, local residents and Resident Association Meetings.
A review of this Designated Public Place Order will be included in the annual report presented to the Licensing and General Purposes Committee reviewing all of the Designated Public Place Orders in the City.
Bill McDonald from Tunstall's Chamber of Trade said
I have spoken to several traders in the town and obviously they are relieved that the arz is now in place. I think that the residents of Tunstall are equally pleased with the result and all will look forward to restoring the town centre to a pleasant and comfortable place to shop in.
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Comments
Look at the map and try and
Look at the map and try and tell me that this is not a deliberate act of segregation that will send all the problems into the twighlight zone that is the Greenfields and Christchurch area.
It will be great when our crime figures go up due to this stupidity.
This Alcohol Restriction Zone
This Alcohol Restriction Zone (ARZ) is great news for all those within the designated area. However, I agree with others who live in areas outside of the zone who are worried that this may just move the problem from one area to another.
With regard to why we asked the councillor to have the Bankeyfields area included within the ARZ, many people may be saying to themselves that we have not had a lot of drinking in the park area over the past few months. However, we need to take into consideration that it has been the cold dark Winter months recently and this always reduces the number of incidents.
We now need to work with the police to make sure that the ARZ can stamp out the drinking of alcohol within the park area, we all know that this leads to broken glass on the floor and various other forms of anti-social behaviour which destroys an enjoyable trip to the park with the children. If you see someone drinking alcohol please contact the police, they cannot be everywhere, but with our help they will get to know what is going on and be able to crack down on the drinkers and send out the message that we will not tolerate this behaviour in our open space.
We have also received questions from worried residents with regard to the value of their properties due to the area being seen as a bad place to live. I believe that the anti-social behaviour brought on by alcohol making the area somewhere people do not want to live would have a far greater effect on house prices than the ARZ being in place.
One question I have asked officials many times is "Why can we not have a simple blanket ban on drinking in public places", the only answer they come up with is that the police would not have enough resources to police a blanket ban. Does this not show that society needs to change?
Richard Hawthorne, Chairman, Bankeyfields RA.
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