Agenda item

            (Mr. P. Murray, Antisocial Behaviour Programme Coordinator attended in connection with this item)

 

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

 

“1.    Relevant Background Information

 

         The purpose of this report is to:

 

·        Provide an overview of antisocial behaviour (ASB) incidents across parks and leisure facilities and electoral areas; and

·        Update committee on the activities, interventions and future developments of the ASB programme.

 

         Members are reminded that the objectives of the ASB programme are to:

 

·        enhance the environment around Parks and Leisure facilities;

·        develop education initiatives involving creative or supportive interventions to model acceptable behaviour around Parks and Leisure facilities;

·        define enforcement as a deterrent against infraction of bye-laws or legislation; and

·        develop sustainable interagency and inter-departmental networks and leading a partnership approach to reducing antisocial behaviour.

 

2.      Key Issues

          

         Trends in the available ASB incident data

 

         The ASB Coordinator prioritises action and expenditure by collating evidence gathered through ASB incident reports.

 

         The comparative data outlined in Table 1 below, shows a decrease in the total number of ASB incident reports in parks between May and August 2014 in comparison to May to Aug 2013. This is especially significant within parks in the five electoral areas of Balmoral, Castle, Laganbank, Oldpark and Victoria.

 

Table 1: Comparison of the number of ASB incidents in Parks and Leisure Facilities across electoral areas between May to August 2013 and May to August 2014
May to August 2013		May to August 2014
Electoral Area	Total ASB	Electoral Area	Total ASB
Balmoral	111	Balmoral	17
Castle	108	Castle	34
Court	77	Court	95
Laganbank	959	Laganbank	276
Lower Falls	21	Lower Falls	29
Oldpark	290	Oldpark	93
Pottinger	151	Pottinger	195
Upper Falls	172	Upper Falls	262
Victoria	32	Victoria	21
Total	1921	Total	1022

 

         The data identified a decrease in reports of:

·        Litter

·        Animal problems

·        Street Drinking

·        Criminal Damage, fire starting

·        Rowdy and Nuisance behaviour, gangs gathering

·        Soccer teams using pitches without booking or paying

·        Off road motorcycling

 

         This trend can be attributed to development of site specific displacement and diversionary activities; high visibility enforcement operations across the City; Park Wardens issuing fixed penalty notices for litter and dog fouling and working in partnership with PSNI to tackle street drinking. The programming of enforcement operations is planned in relation to evidence gathered from ASB incident reports.

 

         The evidence available highlights a slight upward trend in the number of reports of ASB in parks within Court, Lower Falls, and more significantly within Pottinger and Upper Falls electoral areas.

 

         The data identified an increase in reports of:

 

·        Rowdy and nuisance behaviour: drunken behaviour, youths causing annoyance.

·        Criminal and Environmental damage: throwing missiles, broken glass.

·        Street Drinking.

 

         The majority of incidents can be attributed to youths being attracted to contractors sites and causing damage during the development of the Connswater Community Greenway. The Greenway is comprised of a number of individual parks which may not merit an intensive response, however, resources will be allocated consistently throughout the Greenway to minimise the emergence of ASB.

 

         An increase in incidents at the City Cemetery can be attributed to drinkers, burning fires, causing damage and breaking glass bottles.

 

         ASB in park and leisure facilities

 

         The data details the three parks with the most incidents of ASB in each electoral area, the hotspot categories of ASB and where there were more than 20 incidents (these locations appear in bold type).

 

         Intensive Interventions

 

         Planned intensive interventions are designed and introduced for parks that have more than 20 ASB incidents (see Table 2). The planned interventions span across all 4 objectives of the ASB programme: education, environment, enforcement and partnership. Interventions will resource events to stimulate community ownership and appropriate use (education) or involve the environmental and physical development of a site or schedule enforcement operations in partnership with existing council services and PSNI.

 

         Table 2 outlines the parks that have had more than 20 incidents during May and August 2014 and the specific intensive interventions planned for the coming months.

 

Table 2: Specific interventions planned to tackle ASB in Parks with more than 20 ASB incidents
Court
Woodvale	The majority of ASB incident reports indicate Criminal damage and Vehicle nuisance. The Park manager will ensure damage is repaired and Park Wardens will work with Community Safety officers and PSNI to tackle inappropriate vehicle use.

 

Laganbank
Botanic	ASB incident reports indicate significant Rowdy/Nuisance behaviour, Street drinking and substance misuse. Using data from ASB reports a series of successful family fun days were programmed to displace ongoing ASB. This will continue using appropriate seasonal activities. Park Wardens will intervene to address rowdy behaviour and work with Community Safety officers and PSNI to tackle drinking and substance misuse
Oldpark
Alexandra	ASB incident reports indicate issues of Rowdy/Nuisance behaviour such as fighting and throwing missiles. Following a range of successful events and interventions during the summer; the Outreach Manager and Park Manager will continue to engage with community groups to identify diversionary activities for young people. Park Wardens will report all incidents of rowdy behaviour to the PSNI.
Waterworks	ASB incident reports indicate issues of Rowdy/Nuisance behaviour such as drunken behaviour. Park Wardens will report all incidents of drunken behaviour to the PSNI and will work in partnership with Community safety resources to tackle public drinking.
Pottinger
Ormeau	ASB incident reports indicate issues of Rowdy/Nuisance behaviour such as Fighting and drinking. Park Wardens will report all incidents of Rowdy behaviour to the PSNI and will work in partnership with Community safety resources to tackle public drinking.
Clara Street	ASB incident reports indicate issues of Rowdy/Nuisance behaviour such as verbal abuse and youths causing annoyance. Park Wardens will report all incidents of Rowdy behaviour to the PSNI. The Outreach Manager and Park Manager will continue to engage with community groups to identify appropriate diversionary activities for young people.
Orangefield	ASB incident reports indicate issues of Rowdy/Nuisance behaviour such as throwing missiles; Criminal Damage such as breaking fences and breaking locks. Park Wardens will report all incidents of Rowdy and criminal behaviour to the PSNI. The Outreach Manager and Park Manager will continue to engage with community groups to identify appropriate diversionary activities for young people.

 

Upper Falls
Falls Park	ASB incident reports indicate issues of Rowdy/Nuisance behaviour such as groups and gangs gathering, youths causing annoyance and drunken behaviour. Park Wardens will report all incidents of Rowdy behaviour to the PSNI. The Outreach Manager and Park Manager will continue to engage with community groups to identify appropriate diversionary activities for young people.
City Cemetery	ASB incident reports indicate issues of Rowdy/Nuisance behaviour such as groups and gangs gathering, youths causing annoyance, throwing missiles and drunken behaviour; Criminal damage such as setting fires; Littering such as broken glass. Park Wardens will report all incidents of Rowdy and criminal behaviour to the PSNI. The Outreach Manager and Park Manager will continue to engage with community groups to identify appropriate diversionary activities for young people. A decorative arts project has been initiated which will challenge ASB in the cemetery. Park Wardens will work with Community Safety officers and PSNI to tackle drinking.

 

         Citywide ASB programme development

 

         Alongside the intensive interventions planned to tackle reported incidents of ASB, a number of citywide ASB programme developments will be implemented during the coming months:

 

·        Ongoing development of family friendly activity programmes. These programmes are designed to draw in legitimate park users and displace rowdy groups.

·        Ongoing site specific displacement, diversionary and engagement activities such as midnight soccer and sports coaching will be programmed in a variety of Parks, 3G facilities and in Avoniel LC.

·        Park Wardens will issue fixed penalties in relation to litter and dog fouling offences in parks as part of an ongoing enforcement programme.

·        Park Wardens will also work in close partnership with PSNI and Community safety officers during planned operations to tackle alcohol consumption and substance misuse in parks.

·        Park Warden operations planning will support the ongoing Community safety joint operations with PSNI. It is intended that the opportunities for joint working in Park areas will also be shared with the DPCSP.

 

3.      Resource Implications

 

         It is proposed that additional temporary resource is deployed for a period of up to 6 months to address issues in the Pottinger and Upper Falls areas and to provide local support for specific sites such as Woodvale and Dunville.  The cost of the additional support using a combination of Attendants / Wardens would be in the region of £30,000.

 

         The development of the programme and the additional resource will be facilitated through the agreed ASB budget 2014-2015 which is approximately £250,000.

 

4.      Equality Implications

 

         Much of the ASB programme work spans activities related to reducing interface tensions and bringing young people together to take part in positive programmes and activities.  All of the programme work is delivered in line with the council’s equality and good relations policies and procedures.

 

5.      Recommendations

          

         The Committee is asked to note the contents of this update report.”

 

            The Director outlined the principal aspects of the report and answered a number of Members’ questions in respect of the information which had been presented. He advised the Committee that the overall trend for antisocial activity within departmental properties remained downward.  He added that the Department proposed, for a six-month period, to allocate additional resources to address an increase in antisocial behaviour within the Pottinger and Upper Falls areas.

 

            Members paid tribute to Council staff who had been involved in initiatives designed to address antisocial behaviour.  The Director stressed that the statistics, as presented, referred to incidents which had occurred within the period from May till August, and that recent occurrences referred to by Members, particularly those within the Cavehill Country Park, the Ormeau Park and the Orangefield Park, would be reflected within the next report.  However, he indicated that officers would, in the mean time, investigate the incidents which had been referred to.

 

            After further discussion, the Committee noted the information which had been provided.