United against antisocial behaviour in Edinburgh

Detailed plans to tackle antisocial behaviour have been drawn up by Edinburgh’s Community Safety partners.

Prevention, intervention, enforcement and community engagement are key elements of the Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership’s Antisocial Behaviour Strategy 2016-2019, which was approved by the Health, Social Care and Housing Committee today.

The Antisocial Behaviour Strategy 2016-2019 is the first to incorporate all antisocial behaviour calls and complaints made to the Council, Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service – giving a complete picture of antisocial behaviour in Edinburgh.

Achieving the following outcomes is the primary aim of this strategy:

• increasing and improving partnership working
• ensuring a consistent approach to antisocial behaviour
• increasing public awareness of antisocial behaviour, services and support available
• increasing public feelings of safety and security

Reducing antisocial behaviour is a key priority for the city and the strategy sends out a clear message that while steps will be taken to stop it from happening in the first place, serious or persistent cases will also be dealt with.

The strategy was created with a key stakeholders group, including Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Lothian Buses, Registered Social Landlords and Edinburgh Tenants Federation.

The Community Safety Partnership then conducted a programme of public consultation to hear from residents, visitors and interested parties regarding their experiences or perceptions of antisocial behaviour in the capital to help shape the strategy.

The Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership is responsible for co-ordinating a joint agency response to community safety outcomes across the city as part of Community Planning in Edinburgh. The Community Safety Partnership membership includes:

• The City of Edinburgh Council
• Police Scotland
• NHS Lothian
• Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
• Edinburgh Interfaith Association
• Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council (EVOC)
• Edinburgh Drug and Alcohol Partnership (EDAP).

Community Safety Leader Cllr Joan Griffiths said: “We want to reduce antisocial behaviour in Edinburgh through more effective partnership working and increased community engagement. This strategy was developed to help people live safely and free from the distress that antisocial behaviour causes. It was vital that local communities helped to shape this strategy, and I am delighted that so many took the time to contribute.

“We are committed to making this happen through the new locality model and will focus on embedding what works, enabling good practice to spread and demonstrating improved results for communities.

“Any threatening or disturbing behaviour will not be tolerated and I want to send a clear message to those involved that there will be consequences to their actions. The strategy also contributes directly to the agreed priority of the Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership of reducing antisocial behaviour, violence, harm and reoffending.”

“Edinburgh is a safe and welcoming place and we will continue to work with the public and partner organisations to ensure that it remains so.”

Chief Superintendent Kenny MacDonald, Divisional Commander for Edinburgh said: “We recognise the impact that antisocial behaviour in all its forms can have on our communities and we are committed to working alongside our partners to identify offenders and explore a range of opportunities and diversionary activities aimed at deterring further incidents occurring.

“The Antisocial Behaviour Strategy is a collaborative approach, which allows the participating organisations to develop consistent approaches to tackling antisocial behaviour while at the same time improving public confidence in the local authority and emergency service response to offences of this nature.

“We are committed to maintaining Edinburgh’s status as a safe place to live, work and visit and to improving the quality of life for the city’s communities.”

A report on progress of the implementation of the new strategy will be brought to Health, Social Care and Housing Committee in November 2017.