Community safety

The council's duty and vision

Warwick District Council has a corporate vision to make neighbourhoods feel safer and to promote safe, vibrant and sustainable local communities.

The Council has a duty to:

work in partnership with the Police, County Council, Police Authority, Fire & Rescue Service, Probation Service and the Primary Care Trust to develop and implement strategies to tackle crime and disorder and the misuse of drugs in the district
ensure that it does not contribute to increased crime and anti-social behaviour through the delivery of its services.

The Council's Community Safety Team helps to coordinate this work to tackle crime and disorder in the District.

The Council contributes to reassuring our communities through:

Adopting a preventative culture in our service design and delivery
Delivering quality services and utilising all the powers available to us to make communities feel safer (such as licensing, CCTV and parking enforcement)
Consulting and involving the community in identifying crime and disorder problems and solutions.
Coordinating actions to address the concerns of local people
Ensuring that the concerns of Community Forums inform the picture of crime and disorder in the district, South Warwickshire & Warwickshire Supporting Warwickshire Police lead on tackling serious violent crime and serious acquisitive crime
Working with Stratford-on-Avon District Council to jointly lead on tackling anti-social behaviour and criminal damage
Working together with Stratford-on-Avon District Council to drive and administer Safer South Warwickshire - Community Safety Partnership
Working with county-wide agencies to support and contribute to the aims of the Local Area Agreement
Challenging the responsible authorities and cooperative bodies to do all they can to reduce crime and disorder and the fear of crime.

Contact the Community Safety Team

The Community Safety Team can be contacted by emailing us at communitysafety@warwickdc.gov.uk or telephoning us on 01926 456021.

For enquiries relating to anti-social behaviour phone 01926 456010 or email antisocialbehaviour@warwickdc.gov.uk

Levels of crime and disorder in Warwick district

In 2009/10 there were 8,129 recorded crimes in the district. This is the lowest total for 10 years with 1,584 fewer crimes than the previous 12 month period. We have the best performance nationally for reductions in serious violent with 282 fewer crimes (-37.1%). Most serious violence was down by 22 crimes (- 25%).

Serious Acquisitive Crime is down 203 crimes (-10.2%) with pleasing reductions in vehicle crime. Theft from vehicles is down by 218 offences (-18.8%) and theft of vehicles is down by 39 to 164 (-19.2%). Robbery was down 21 crimes
(-23.9%) but Domestic Burglary increased with 75 more crimes, an increase of 14.0%.

There were 6,063 reported anti-social behaviour incidents in 2009/10, a reduction of 1023 (14.4%) compared to the previous 12 month period. There was a reduction in every Community Forum Area with the exception of the Leamington Town Centre where levels remained unchanged. Success at modifying behaviour at first intervention was 89% compared to a national average of 64%. There were 469 fewer criminal damage offences (-23.5%).

Fear of crime levels are the lowest for 10 years with significant reductions recorded. Local people were asked how concerned they were and the figures for those very or fairly concerned were:

being physically attacked by a stranger 33.2%, in 2005/06 this figure was 38.1%
their home broken into and something stolen 45.1%, in 2000/01 this figure was 64.1%
having their car stolen 32.2%, in 2000/01 this figure was 51.8%

Up to date crime figures for Warwick District can be found on the Warwickshire Police Local Crime Mapping website. Information on crime levels in South Warwickshire can be found on the Warwickshire Observatory website.

2010/11 priorities

Tackling anti-social behaviour is the Warwick District Council Community Safety priority and together with Stratford-on-Avon District Council take the lead in tackling this priority in South Warwickshire.

Based on the findings of the Strategic Assessment the priority order for Safer South Warwickshire ( Community Safety Partnership) is: serious violent crime, anti-social behaviour (including criminal damage and arson) serious acquisitive crime and controlling the speed of vehicles in residential areas.

Draft South Warwickshire Joint Partnership Plan April 2008 - March 2011 (271kb PDF)

The strategic assessments also inform the Warwickshire Local Area Agreement (LAA) Safer Block Priorities and the County Community Safety Agreement which sets out how those agencies working county-wide can be effective and efficient in local delivery.

The LAA Safer Block Priorities in order are:

Violent Crime, with a specific focus on Domestic Abuse and alcohol related violence
Road Safety
Anti-Social Behaviour, with a specific focus on tackling youth related incidents
Public confidence and perceptions (of all types of crime and disorder)
Serious Acquisitive Crime, with a specific focus on domestic burglary and theft from vehicles
Community Cohesion, including preventing violent extremism

Cross Cutting Themes

Alcohol
Drugs
Reducing Re-Offending

Warwickshire Police & Safer Neighbourhoods

Warwickshire Police introduced local policing teams across Warwickshire in 2006. There are eight Safer Neighbourhood Areas in Warwick district based on district council wards: