Evening Economy Strategy

by gpp-peterborough.org.uk

Introduction:

Peterborough is located in the county of Cambridgeshire and has an estimated population (as of July 2002) of 158,000 people. There is a diverse mix of ethnic origins living and working in Peterborough, with 10.3% of Peterborough’s population classifying themselves as belonging to a non-white ethnic minority group in the 2001 Census. The Pakistani community makes up the largest non-white ethnic group in Peterborough, with approximately 5% of the total population. However, the city is also home to significant numbers of people belonging to other minority ethnic groups, such as India, Italy, China, the Caribbean, Poland and other East European countries, to name but a few.

Peterborough is continuing to expand with a number of new housing developments currently being built and further developments planned for the future. During 2003/2004, 583 actual new builds took place across the city and in Hampton alone, it is estimated that 13,000 houses will occupy the township on completion of the various building phases. The development of the A1M (formally known as the A1) has enhanced the infrastructure of Peterborough and allows easy access to and exit from the city. However, there are also a number of disadvantaged areas across the city and the Indices of Deprivation 2004 undertaken at Super Output Area level (a new statistical geography), shows that the Dogsthorpe Ward is within 5% of the most deprived SOAs in England, and Central, East and Ravensthorpe Wards within 10% of the same.

Peterborough is the largest city in the area and the City Centre attracts visitors from other counties, including Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk and South Cambs.

Peterborough City Centre has approximately 23 public houses, 5 night-clubs and a number of restaurants located in the heart of the city. The focus of the evening economy predominantly centres on the areas of Broadway, City Road, Northminster, Cattle Market and New Road, where there is a high concentration of pubs and clubs. The perception of the City Centre, which is often added to by the negative publicity in the local media, is that it is home to an increasing amount of alcohol related incidents of crime and disorder. There is also a view that the City Centre provides an evening market that is aimed more at the younger generation and binge-drinking culture. Whilst targeted and ongoing police operations have contributed to a decrease in a number of crime categories, reports of violent crime and street robberies have continued to rise.

Aside from Peterborough, the Prime Minster’s Strategy Unit’s Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England paper, has estimated in their interim analysis, that alcohol misuse is costing the country around £20 billion per year. Therefore, the hidden costs of binge drinking are having a huge impact on the Police, NHS, Local Authority and Private Sectors.
Nationally, reports of violent crime continue to rise with an increase of 12% during 2003/2004. Across Cambridgeshire, reports of violent crime have increased by 7% during 2003/2004, however this increase falls 5% below the national average. Encouragingly, Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s detection rate for this type of crime stands at 52% during 2003/2004, representing a rate that is higher than the national average.

What do the statistics show us?

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to determine the true extent of alcohol related crimes. It is well known that many incidents remain unreported to the police. Enquiries into the feasibility of undertaking an anonymous alcohol related incident survey amongst patients visiting the A&E department at Peterborough District Hospital, failed due to the Health Authority’s legislation governing data collection and the Data Protection Act. Furthermore, the markers on the police recording systems, which would indicate use of intoxicating substances, appear to very under used. For this reason, it can be difficult to identify incidents that are alcohol related. A further complication is that many of the licensed premises that are located on Broadway fall within the police defined ‘Gladstone’ beat. However, a general search on violent and/or alcohol related crimes in the Gladstone beat will also produce a list of crimes in areas that fall outside of PEP’s immediate remit, i.e. the City Centre. Therefore, obtaining definitive and useful crime statistics can be a time-consuming and difficult task!

• From June 2003 to June 2004, 1017 offences relating to violent crime and anti-social behaviour were reported from the four City Centre beats. With regard to violent crime and public order offences, 50.6% of all offences occurred in the four hour period between 11.00 p.m. and 03.00 a.m. Of all offences, 37.6% of them occurred between 11.00 p.m. and 03.00 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
• The searches relating to anti-social behaviour have been undertaken using broad criteria, including abandoned vehicles etc. The searches have shown that 34.4% of all ASB incidents occurred between the hours of 11.00 p.m. to 03.00 a.m., with 24.3% occurring on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
• Using the same search criteria as above, but with slightly differing dates, 716 crimes were reported between 31/3/03 and 30/04/04. The categories searched and the number of reported crimes for each of those categories are shown overleaf:

Offence Crimes

ABH 427

Common Assault 165

Affray 42

GBH 32

Sexual Assault 24

Violent Disorder 14
Rape 10

Attempted Murder 2

The offences were then further broken down into locations, although the type and times of the crimes have not been specified for the individual streets. However, the following list gives an indication of the 10 streets, which have seen the most reported crimes relating to ABH, Common Assault, Affray, GBH, Sexual Assault, Violent Disorder, Rape and Attempted Murder from the four City Centre beats – 52 1A, 1B, 1C and 1DLocation Number of crimes reported

New Road – 133

Geneva Street – 118

Lincoln Road – 73

Broadway – 60

Queensgate – 53

Westgate – 46

Park Road – 41

Long Causeway – 17

Bridge Street – 17

Whilst this list is not exhaustive and other areas of the City Centre should not be discounted, each of the remaining 25 streets included in the searches have only shown between 1 to 16 reported crimes from the aforementioned categories for the period 31/3/03 to 30/4/04.

It is clear from these searches that New Road and Geneva Street give rise to the most concern and whilst the exact times of the offences have not been fully investigated, we can perhaps conclude that by the very nature of their location, many of them will have occurred during the evening environment.
It is worth mentioning that the new police crime recording standards, which were introduced in 2002, have had a bearing on these figures, but the need has also been highlighted for a multi-agency partnership to tackle and address the issues surrounding crime and disorder in the City Centre.

What has happened so far?

Peterborough has an active Community Safety Partnership, made up of representatives from the Police, Peterborough City Council, Health Service, Primary Care Trusts, Fire Service, Probation Service and local voluntary sectors. Beneath the umbrella of the Community Safety Partnership, a number of partnership groups have been introduced to address a wide range of community safety issues. Whilst many of those groups have been working towards the common goal of improving security and well being in the City Centre, there has been a lack of communication between them. However, this issue is currently being addressed with the rejuvenation of the Safer Peterborough Action Group

A successful radio scheme, known as City Link, operates in the City Centre retail premises and currently has a membership base of 121 businesses, using a total of 185 radios. A further radio scheme, known as Centre Safe, has been introduced for the purpose of the evening economy and currently has a membership base of 21 licensed premises, using 21 radios.

Where do we go from here?

The range of issues that it is hoped will be addressed, has demonstrated the need for a co-ordinated approach by the Peterborough Evening Partnership (PEP). The partnership is made up of representatives from the Police (Sector Inspector, Licensing Inspector, Community Safety Manager and Community Safety Officer), Peterborough City Council (Licensing Department, CCTV Manager, Taxi Enforcement Officer, City Centre Co-ordinator, Street Warden/Supervisor, DAT), Licensees (Paul Hook – Peterborough Centre Forum) and other Local Agencies and Organisations (including Drinksense and occasional attendance from Trading Standards). Whilst continuing to work alongside other city centre based groups, the group ensures a collective approach to tackling the issues surrounding crime, disorder, safety, reassurance and evening services in the City Centre.

The sheer range of issues to be addressed and the time required to implement the action plans will have an impact on the time commitment for all involved in the project (PEP). To this end, consideration may need to be given to the employment of a project manager who can both shape the direction of the project and engineer the actions that need to be taken to successfully deliver it. Funding avenues will need to be explored to determine the establishment of this role.

A Project Board may also need to be introduced and its representatives might include some of those currently involved in PEP? If a project manager were to be introduced, the Project Board would oversee and direct that individual. In turn, the Project Board would report to the Community Safety Performance Management Group.

The range of initiatives being considered and the commitment from the organisations involved should contribute to raising the profile of Peterborough City Centre, with all those involved in the evening economy strategy striving to deliver improvements in the quality of life for employers, employees and customers alike.