REPORT OF THE

Cabinet /Leader

PART II

COMMUNITY SAFETY SERVICE

Hampshire County Council established the Community Safety Service in response to repeated feedback from the MORI Residents' Surveys and other surveys which indicated that residents wanted to see greater visibility in dealing with anti-social behaviour. The Service commenced in December 2004 with the introduction of four teams of Accredited Community Safety Officers (ACSOs) covering the `pilot' areas of:

· Basingstoke and Deane

· Gosport

· Havant

· New Forest

Since its introduction the Service has proved to be very successful and has provided the County Council with a direct means of influencing the perception of making Hampshire a safer place in which to live and work and enhancing the quality of place for communities. The Service has worked effectively with other agencies involved in crime and community safety and demonstrated that it is responsive to local issues that arise.

As a result of the significant and visible contribution the Service has made to community safety (over 10,000 incidents dealt with during its first year) and an increasing demand for the Service across Hampshire, the County Council agreed to additional funding of £300,000 per year. Accordingly, the Cabinet considered a report on 27 November 2006 and gave approval to establish a new central team of ACSOs based in Winchester, and to expand the Service into five Tactical Areas of Responsibility (TAORs) as follows:

· TAOR 1 - Basingstoke and Deane, Hart, Andover and the surrounding area


· TAOR 2 - Gosport, Fareham, parts of south Eastleigh Borough and Winchester Council (i.e. Whiteley area)


· TAOR 3 - Havant, Portchester and East Hampshire including Petersfield and the surrounding area


· TAOR 4 - New Forest and parts of South Test Valley including Romsey


· TAOR 5 - the main towns of Winchester, Alton, Alresford and Rushmoor

Developing the Service into Tactical Areas of Responsibility recognises the need to cover as much of the county as possible and to maintain effective links with local residents and partner organisations whilst remaining focused on County Council priorities, objectives and policies. In addition, the TAORs will build on the strengths of the teams in the pilot areas to enable a gradual provision of all aspects of community safety, education, community engagement and enforcement.

To ensure the best use of financial resources, vacancies for all of the teams will be recruited to as Probationer ACSOs (unless they are already accredited and qualified) for a period of six months. Upon successful completion of the required training and qualifications, probationers will become accredited officers.