Prevention is key for new Chesterfield anti-social behaviour strategy - with plans to focus on Staveley, Barrow Hill and Mastin Moor

Members of Chesterfield Borough Council formally adopted the Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy in a meeting on December 14, having already seen success during the consultation period.

Member for health and well-being Councillor Jill Mannion-Brunt said the strategy, which has been developed with the Head of Community Safety and Regulatory Services Shaun Morley, a former chief superintendent for South Yorkshire Police, is built upon the understanding of anti-social behaviour (ASB) patterns and reflected the authorities effective use of partnership working.

“The key principles of early intervention and prevention, enforcement, diversion and communication have already proved fruitful,” she said.

“Enforcement is key in terms of protecting vulnerable residents and dealing with serious incidents.”

Coun Brunt said the strategy informed where the council put its CCTV cameras, the way it designs entrances and exits to parks and how it runs the town centre in a move to ‘design out’ ASB.

The authority has been working with youth outreach programmes to give young people something to do and divert them away from problem behaviour in areas including the town centre, Queen’s Park and the new McDonald’s.

“They really have done a lot of outreach work to reach kids that have got a lot of difficulties and one of the biggest things that hit me was they were talking about the fact that the kids were saying they felt they had a safe place to talk,” she commented.

The council now plans to focus more attention on ASB in the wider borough including Staveley, Barrow Hill and Mastin Moor.