The Home Secretary has said that she will not stand by while criminals inflict fear and misery on our local communities.
Although it remains a safe place to live, Hailsham has in recent years suffered from above average neighbourhood crime. Kudos to Conservative-run Wealden for being the only District Council to submit a successful Safer Streets Funding bid in 2021 and for securing the substantial sum of £309,453 in crime prevention money for the Town.
The timescales for the project were very tight, but thanks to hard-work and good partnership-working by the Wealden District Policy Team with the Sussex Police Neighbourhood Policing Team and Hailsham Town Council, among other bodies, much has been achieved.
The following initiatives have been pursued in Hailsham supported by Wealden District’s Safer Streets funding:
- A community survey has been undertaken in those residential areas most affected by the crimes listed by the Home Office to identify residents’ security and safety concerns
- Visits have taken place to a number of properties at the request of the owners with locks replaced and upgraded where necessary, and, where home safety support was sought, from the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service
- There has been an increased Police presence in the town over the last six months
- A DISC project has been developed and now launched in Hailsham Town Centre. DISC provides a platform via an App whereby shops can share information between each other and the police about shoplifters operating in the town and other crimes that may be happening
- Three remote wireless CCTV cameras, covering the three waste recycling points in the town, have been purchased and installed
- Seven upgraded digital CCTV cameras have been purchased and installed, replacing all the existing cameras, providing high quality imaging, future-proofing the Town’s CCTV camera system
- Two additional Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Cameras have been purchased and are being sited within the town’s vicinity, to assist tracking of vehicle movements in order to identify and prosecute offenders
- Victim Support have been commissioned to undertake a number of personal safety workshops in the project area in Hailsham
- Nothing of Value’ cards for display in vehicles have been designed, using insights from the behavioural sciences, and are being given to vehicle owners to further reduce acquisitive and car crime in the target area
- A large number of ‘Selecta’ DNA kits, permitting property owners to invisibly mark their property, aimed at vehicle owners to reduce car crime and make it easier to identify and prosecute offenders, have been purchased along with ‘Selecta’ DNA property marking kits
- A community outreach drugs worker has been appointed and is working in the project area
- Two Youth Shelters have been purchased. They will be sited in recreation grounds adjoining the project area and just outside the town centre. These will aim to provide a place for young people to gather and socialise, draw the current groups of young people meeting in the town centre to locations where they will have less potential to cause problems, hopefully permitting police and youth workers to engage with young people more effectively
It is clearly early days, but Wealden District report that the newly installed CCTV cameras overlooking the Council’s three recycling centres in the town centre, have already captured details of four fly-tippers and un-taxed and un-insured vehicles. In addition, over 40 shopkeepers in the town have signed up to the DISC scheme. A detailed evaluation of the whole project will be taking place in due course, but the initial results are encouraging.
Local Conservatives, supported by a Conservative Government, continue to work hard for our residents and businesses to make Hailsham an even safer place to live, work and visit.
