Derby’s Business Improvement Districts – Cathedral Quarter BID and St Peters Quarter BID – joined forces with partners across the city to provide advice and support to businesses and the public during national Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Awareness Week, from 3 to 9 July.
Partners included Derby City Council, Derbion, the Safer Neighbourhood Team, PCSOs and the Safe and Sound Charity.
Daily activities took place across the week, with a view to raising awareness amongst businesses and the public on how to report crime, and explaining the role that different partners play in reporting, referring and tackling anti-social behaviour.
The BIDs undertook a perception survey with businesses and the public, to canvass a wide range of opinions on the issue of anti-social behaviour and how best to tackle it.
The Council’s Public Protection Officers, PCSOs and the Safer Neighbourhood Team run by Derbyshire Constabulary held joint patrols around Derby city centre, alongside the BID Rangers.
Plain clothed operations were also in place at intervals during the week to focus on street begging and rough sleeping. With ASB Awareness Week coinciding with the latest teaching strikes, the partners were also on hand to engage with the young people in the city centre.
Brad Worley, BID manager, said:
ASB Awareness Week is a great opportunity for our BID rangers to show the huge amount they do for businesses in Derby. They were in Derby daily, as always, to support businesses in addressing and communicating issues that affect them on a daily basis, to welcome people, support city-wide initiatives and to work closely with police and other agencies to share intelligence and information which supports the reduction of crime and anti-social behaviour.
This timely event was also a reminder of the work done by the DISC business crime intelligence system and Derbyshire Business Crime Reduction Partnership (DBCRP), to which the BIDs contribute on behalf of all BID levy payers.
Councillor Hardyal Dhindsa, Derby City Council's Cabinet Member for Communities and Streetpride, said:
Derby City Council were pleased to work with all partners during this focus week, as we do throughout the year. The initiatives in place really showed how well we work together. Tackling anti-social behaviour is a priority for the City Centre, and we’d encourage members of the public and businesses to report all ASB through any one of the available channels to assist us in continuing to address some of the challenges.
Don't think that reporting ASB is a waste of police time or is not important. Even if you don't get an immediate response, your information helps to build a picture and target hotspots.
Derby City Council also supported Safe and Sound to provide young person’s outreach in the city centre on Friday 7 July, when schools were affected by industrial action.
Tracy Harrison is CEO of Derbyshire’s specialist child exploitation charity, Safe and Sound. She said:
We welcomed the opportunity to deploy our specialist outreach and child exploitation support worker teams in Derby city centre on days when we knew there would be an increased presence of children and young people.
Working alongside personnel from the Derbion, Rangers from the two Business Improvement District (BID) areas, Derby City Council and Derbyshire police, we engaged with a large number of young people to ensure they were safe but also to challenge and prevent anti-social behaviour.
I know that the increased joint presence in the city centre was regarded as positive and proves that targeted partnership working is effective in increasing safety and wellbeing for everyone living, working and visiting busy areas.