Alley Gating Failsworth & Hollinwood PDF 88 KB

ALLEYGATING – FAILSWORTH &
HOLLINWOOD
Report of the Head of Community Safety Services
Portfolio Responsibility: Environment and Infrastructure
05 th November 2010
Officer Contact: Philip Bonworth
Ext. 1592
Purpose of Report
This report has been prepared at the request of local ward councillors, in
response to their highlighting of a location, which they believe would benefit
from alleygating due to quality of life issues, which are seriously affecting
residents living within the intended scheme.
Executive Summary
The Borough of Oldham has a very high proportion of terraced properties and
as a result has a lot of alleyways. These alleyways are utilised as a route of
access for residents to the rear of their properties. Unfortunately alleyways
also provide access for criminals, providing burglars with the means to break
in from the rear of the house. Residents with rears alleyways also often
experience anti-social behaviour, environmental crime and other forms of
criminal activity.
This report will outline problems identified by GMP analysts at this location,
provide an approximate costing of the scheme and outline the process that
will be required if the District Partnership determines that the gating of this
alleyway would be funded through District Partnership monies, subject to
resident approval and a gating order for this location being successfully
obtained.
This report will also provide a further update on those schemes funded by the
District Partnership from their 2009/2010 budgets. This update has been
attached to the report as Appendix A.

Recommendations
For the Failsworth & Hollinwood District Partnership to consider approval for
funding to install alleygates, in the area identified below: This funding to come
from the Safe, Clean & Green budget allocated to Failsworth & Hollinwood.
Failsworth West Ward (Police Beat Q3 Q5)
There is one scheme listed for Failsworth West in the body of this report. This
scheme has not come to the notice of the Community Safety Service for
issues with burglary. However, there have been anecdotal complaints of antisocial
behaviour from residents, both to Ward Councillors and Council
Officers.
Scheme 791 , which encompasses 1-19 Hardman street, Failsworth and the
business premise to the rear, offers some problems in terms of gating. The
alleyway is an adopted highway. This issue can potentially be overcome by
the pursuit of a gating order at this location. However, a count of crimes and
Anti-Social Behaviour reports at this location indicates that there has been
only a single report of crime at this location and that there have been no
reports of Anti-Social Behaviour (Information drawn from GMP’s systems for
period 1/11/09-31/10/10). The offence that occurred was however, an
aggravated vehicle taking, where entry to steal the vehicle was gained via the
alley.
There is also an issue of where to install the gate which would be sited
nearest to No.1 Hardman Street. The business premise at the rear of the
properties (which I believe is currently unnoccupied) has fire escape access,
which leads directly into the alleyway, close to the rear of 1 Hardman Street.
Siting of the gate near to the rear of the alleyway, which would be the most
cost effective option,due to the open expanse of land at the side of the
property may not be prudent if the business premise is to brought back into
usage, as it may impact on their fire safety procedures.
The second option would be to site the gate to the rear of 3 Hardman Street,
which would mean that the fire exit was not obstructed in any way. However, it
would mean that No.1 Hardman Street would not be protected by the scheme.
If this solution were to be utilised, the Secure Homes Project would look to
target harden No.1 with additional security measures, such as a perimeter
alarm, improved lighting, locks etc. The cost of the gating scheme would be
approximately £2,500.00.
The third option and the preferred option of the Community Safety Service
would be to site the gate parallel to the front gable of No.1 Hardman Street
and to cover the expanse of land at the side of the property, with a weld mesh
type fencing system. This would mean that the fire exit to the business
premise would be inside the gated scheme, however, the scheme could
employ a sheathed quick release lock to this gate as the gate would be far
enough away from the premise so as not to hinder the egress of employees

from the business in the event of a fire. This scheme would cost
approximately £4,500.00.
The above alleyway is a definitive right of way and therefore the
Community Safety Service would be require to make a legal application
in order to install gates.

Report of the Failsworth & Hollinwood District Partnership from
Community Safety Services.
Portfolio Responsibility: Environment and infrastructure
1 Purpose of Report
1.1 The neighbourhood alleygating report has now been presented to all
District Partnerships. The Failsworth & Hollinwood report gave not
only an overview on alleygating, but also gave details of those areas
in Failsworth & Hollinwood that had been identified as areas suffering
from a range of problems including anti social behaviour and various
other types of sub criminal activity. All these areas had been
identified as areas that would benefit by the installation of alleygates.
1.2 The initial report was prepared as an overview and acted as guidance
so that local partnerships could decide as to whether this was a
suitable tactic to deploy in those areas identified as being problem
areas for local residents.
1.3 This supplementary report has been prepared at the request of ward
Councillors to consider gating at a location identified by Councillors as
having a negative effect on the quality of life of residents within the
intended scheme. Residents have also provided anecdotal accounts
of break-ins to garden sheds and anti-social behaviour at this location,
via phone-calls to the Community Safety Service. This report will also
provide an update on gating schemes funded through the District
Partnership from their 2009/2010 budgets. The update has been
attached to the report as Appendix A.
2 Executive Summary
2.1 The Borough of Oldham has a very high proportion of terraced
properties and as a result also has a lot of alleyways that provide
access for residents to the rear of their properties. Unfortunately
alleyways also provide access for criminals providing burglars with the
means to break in from the rear of the house. Residents with rears
alleyways also often experience ant social behaviour and other forms
of criminal activity.
2.2 This report will outline problems identified by GMP analysts at this
location, provide an approximate costing of the scheme and outline the
process that will be required if the District Partnership determines that
the gating of this alleyway would be funded through District Partnership
monies, subject to resident approval and a gating order for this location
being successfully obtained.
2.3 This report will also provide a further update on those schemes funded
by the District Partnership from their 2009/2010 budgets.

3 Recommendations
REFERENCE STREET
791
HARDMAN
STREET
NO. OF
GATES
REQUIRED
2 + RUN OF
WELD MESH
FENCING
AREAS
COVERED COST
1-19
HARDMAN
STREET &
BUSINESS
PREMISE £4,500.00
Alleygate scheme 791, Hardman Street has arisen in response to complaints
from residents of criminal behaviour and anti-social behaviour at these
locations.
I would envision that this scheme would cost no more than £4,500.00, should
the preferred option of the Community Safety Service be pursued.
3.2 The above alleyway is a definitive right of way and would therefore
require a legal application prior to the installation of alleygates
4 Background
4.1 Residents who live in areas with rear alleyways often experience anti
social behaviour; evidence can be found of drug paraphernalia,
alcohol usage, fly tipping, littering, dog fouling and graffiti.
4.2 Community Safety Services and Oldham Partnership has adopted
many tactics to reduce domestic burglary and anti social behaviour.
One of these tactics is to prevent easy access for criminals to the rear
of homes. The installation of lockable gates at the end of each
alleyway makes access to the rear far more difficult whilst providing
peace of mind to the residents.
4.3 Other forms of target hardening or environmental improvements are
available to reduce crime and disorder. Oldham’s Community Safety
Services regularly uses other tactics including improved lighting,
increased security in dwellings (including alarms, locks, security
lighting) and crime prevention education.
4.4 The benefits of alleygating are considerable and range from real
reductions in levels of domestic burglary through to the creation of
defensible space for local residents. Reclaiming the areas at the rear
of their properties enables residents to create safe places for their
children to play and where they can meet their neighbours and develop
a stronger sense of community. It also provides an area that non
residents find difficult to access so providing residents with an element
of control, enabling them to keep the areas clean and providing an

opportunity for them to enhance the area by making appropriate
environmental improvements such as introducing flowers, planters and
benches.
5 Options/Alternatives
5.1 Other options have been investigated and to large extent many of
these options are still utilised as tactics to reduce domestic burglary,
crime and disorder. Target hardening of properties is a common
option and can be focused on individual properties where individual
and specific problems are identified. This as an option will continue
but alleygating of back alleyways can be more cost effective and has
numerous additional benefits as outlined previously. The average
cost of target hardening a home in Oldham is £180 where the average
cost to securing a home by alleygating is £120.
6 Preferred Option
6.1 The preferred option is for the Failsworth & Hollinwood District
Partnership to continue with the gating of problem alleyways in
Failsworth & Hollinwood. To continue this initiative is to continue with
the valuable work already carried out by Community Safety Services
in reducing crime and anti social behaviour in the Royton & Shaw
neighbourhood.
7 Consultation
Resident Consultation
7.1 Ideally, successful alleygating schemes require the support and
consent of all residents who live along the alley to be gated and as
such are directly affected by the closure of the alley. Transitory
resident’s views will be considered in the same way as those of a
permanent resident. Under normal circumstances, consultation does
not take place directly with landlords or Registered Social Landlords,
unless the property is empty or void.
7.2 Initially, letters are sent to all those parties above, detailing the
proposal to gate the alleyway, outlining the advantages and any
possible disadvantages. The letter will be accompanied by a leaflet
and voting form. The completion and return of the form and its
contents will show the initial level of support from local residents.
8 Financial Implications
9 Legal Services Comments
9.1 Gating orders are one of the legal methods of restricting access along
a highway. They are made under powers inserted into the Highways
Act 1980 by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.

Before making a gating order, the Council must be satisfied that
premises adjoining or adjacent to the highway subject to the order are
affected by crime or anti social behaviour, the existence of the
highway is facilitating the persistent commission of criminal offences
or anti social behaviour and it is in all the circumstances expedient to
make the order for the purposes of reducing crime or anti social
behaviour. In considering whether it is expedient to make the order,
the Council should have regard to the likely effect of making the order
on the occupiers of premises adjoining or adjacent to the highway, the
likely effect of making the order on other persons in the locality and in
a case where the highway constitutes a through route, the availability
of a reasonably convenient alternative route.
9.2 It is not necessary to make a gating order in respect of a private
access which is not a highway, although there may be issues
concerning the restriction of private rights of access. These issues
should be addressed during the consultation process. (A Evans)
10 Human Resources Comments
10.1 N/A
11 Risk Assessments
11.1 There are non – specific at this stage.
12. IT Implications
12.1 None
13 Property Implications
13.1 The proposals will improve the security of residential properties in the
areas, reducing the opportunity for crime and removing the fear of
crime for residents.
13.2 The improved security of the area will enhance the feeling of well
being and quality of life, positively affecting the liveability aspect of the
community.
14 Procurement Implications
14.1 N/A
15 Environmental and Health & Safety Implications
15.1 There are non – specific at this stage.

16 Community Cohesion Implications [including Crime & Disorder
Implications in accordance with Section 17 of the Act] and
Equalities Implications
16.1 The proposals will improve the security of residential properties in the
areas, reducing the opportunity for crime and removing the fear of
crime for residents.
16.2 The improved security of the area will enhance the feeling of well
being and quality of life, positively affecting the liveability aspect of the
community.
17 Forward Plan Reference
17.1 N/A
18 Key Decision
18.1 No
19 Background Papers
19.1 Report to Cabinet on 21 October 2009 Scrutiny Review: Alleygating.
20 Appendices
20.1 Appendix A – Alleygate Update document

APPENDIX A
SCHEME
REF ADDRESS WARD STATUS
214 ASWORTH ST/GAIL CL
DATE
COMP
FAILSWORTH
WEST COMPLETED Jun-10
396 11-23 TENBY ROAD HOLLINWOOD COMPLETED Jul-10
523
579
613
18-34 DENSMORE ST & 15-31
PIERCY ST
FAILSWORTH
WEST COMPLETED Sep-10
REPTON AVE, CORONA AVE,
HARROW AVE HOLLINWOOD COMPLETED Aug-10
2-20 LINK LANE & 305-325
HOLLINS RD HOLLINWOOD ORDERED O9/10
621 50-60 MOORCROFT STREET HOLLINWOOD ORDERED O9/10
651 77-84 HAMPTON RD
780 58-66 OLD ROAD
FAILSWORTH
EAST
GATING ORDER
NO.15 (APPLIED
FOR)*
FAILSWORTH
WEST COMPLETED Sep-10
* 651 – Gating Order applied for. Currently with OMBC Legal Department
awaiting legal comment.