A safer and cleaner North Devon

dave.tanner@archant.co.uk
04 November 2009

SAFER North Devon is this week celebrating 10 years of tackling crime and anti-social behaviour across North Devon and Torridge as part of national Not in My Neighbourhood Week - a Government run initiative to give local crime reduction agencies, police forces and partners an opportunity to highlight the work they do.

Based at Barnstaple Police Station, the Safer North Devon partnership works jointly with eight other agencies to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. This includes alcohol and drug-related crime, anti-social behavior; violent crime, domestic violence, prejudice and hate crime; and youth crime.

Over the past 10 years Safer North Devon has secured grants from Government and external bodies of more than £1.5 million pounds to deliver community safety projects locally through its partners.

"We have delivered an incredible number of projects over the past 10 years to help make North Devon and Torridge a safer place to live, work and visit," said Amanda Palmer, Safer North Devon Manager. "This week we want to celebrate our success by raising awareness of our work, how it benefits local communities and how we work with and challenge our partners to come up with the best solutions to solve local crime and anti-social behaviour concerns."

Projects over the past 10 years have included: Establishing the first dedicated Anti-Social Behaviour response team in Devon in 2003; paving the way for one of the first fully funded Devon-wide drug and alcohol services; securing an extra £64,000 last year alone and similar grants in earlier years for capital expenditure items for local communities, such as buying vehicles, sports equipment, floodlighting, CCTV cameras, graffiti removal machine, business and licensee radio schemes, computer equipment and supporting building projects; winning Sport England recognition for a unique project for vulnerable young people in North Devon; and supporting the development of a leading domestic violence service across Northern Devon.

As part of the week's activities a new graffiti clean-up operation PRIDE - Positive Response Improving Devon Environment - is being launched in Barnstaple on Friday morning (Nov 6).

The PRIDE team will head out to graffiti hot spots, including Pilton Park, Rock Park and other Barnstaple town centre areas.

Torridge District Council will also be targeting graffiti removal through its environmental green team and unpaid workers from the Devon and Cornwall Probation area. East-the-Water Primary School children will also be helping to identify local 'grot spots.'