To coincide with the national ASB Awareness Week (3rd to 9th July), Derby’s Business Improvement Districts – Cathedral Quarter BID and St Peters Quarter BID – have joined forces with partners across the city to provide advice and support to businesses and the public regarding anti-social behaviour.
Partners include Derby City Council, Derbion, the Safer Neighbourhood Team, PCSOs and the Safe and Sound.
Daily activities will take 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 will be undertaking a perception survey with businesses and the public, to canvas 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 will also be running joint patrols around Derby city centre, alongside the BID Rangers.
Operations will also be 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, this increased presence will also be on hand in the event of a possible influx of young people.
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 will be 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 is 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. If you would like more information about how businesses can get involved with this, or wish to attend our monthly BCRP meeting, please contact us at [address].”
Helen Faulconbridge, Locality Manager for Derby City Council, said:
“Derby City Council are pleased to be working with all partners during this focus week, as well as throughout the year. The initiatives in place really show how well we work together and tackling ASB is a priority for the City Centre. We’d encourage members of the public and businesses to report all ASB through any one of the available channels which will assist with us continuing to address some of the challenges around ASB.”
Derby City Council is also supporting Safe and Sound to provide young person’s outreach in the city centre on Friday 7th July, which is a proposed school strike day.
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.”
