Ards Borough Council
News Release
31 October 2006
Some of the people tasked with influencing policing and how anti-social behaviour issues are tackled in Ards were out on the streets last weekend to experience for themselves just what the problems are – and what’s being done to deal with them.
Two Councillors, along with two of the independent members of the Ards District Policing Partnership (DPP), spent last Friday night (27th October) in the company of Ards Borough Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour Team and the PSNI, attending incidents dealing with everything from drinking in public places in Comber to youths causing disturbances in Newtownards.
The Anti-Social Behaviour Team, the only one of its kind in Northern Ireland, was established by the Council to work alongside local community policing teams to deal with everything from underage drinking and drinking in public places to littering and vandalism, as well as to target hotspots and introduce measures to reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour occurring in the first place.
Accompanying the patrol was an ‘eye-opener’, according to Alderman Jim Shannon, Chairman of the DPP:
“We know from our research that anti-social behaviour is the public’s number one priority when it comes to policing and many organisations, including the Council, PSNI, DPP and Community Safety Partnership, have been working to address the issues,” said Alderman Shannon. “However, seeing the problems at first hand was a real eye-opener, not just in terms of what some residents are subjected to, but also in terms of the work which is being done on the ground to tackle the issues – work which is by no means easy and which is not always appreciated. There is no simple solution to anti-social behaviour problems, but you can be sure that operations like the one on Friday night are playing a major part in targeting hotspots and tackling offenders”.
Anti-Social Behaviour Team Leader, Colin Reid, was pleased with the response of the observers and happy that some of those with responsibility for resourcing the initiative and for influencing policing, saw at first hand what his three-strong team does:
“There is no better way to understand the type and level of anti-social behaviour we are tackling on a daily basis than to observe the team at work at close quarters with police colleagues,” said Mr Reid. “The four Councillors and DPP members who came out on Friday night did, I believe, get a picture of anti-social behaviour in our town centres and were so interested in seeing more that they wanted to extend the time they spent with us beyond 10.30pm and actually remained with the patrol until nearly midnight”.
Chair of the DPP and Member of the Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group, Alderman Jim Shannon, was on patrol along with Councillor Michelle McIlveen who also sits on the DPP, and Elaine McVeigh and Donna Hamilton, both independent members of the DPP.
Anyone who would like to know more about the work of the Anti-Social Behaviour Team should contact:
Colin Reid,
Team Leader,
Tel: 028 9182 4044.
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Submitted by The Editor on Tue, 2006-10-31 19:46.
