Sustainable Community Strategy - Coventry Partnership

3. A safer and more confident Coventry - Our Plans
3a Long-term outcomes
• People will feel safer and more confident as there is less crime and anti-social behaviour
• There will be less harm caused by illegal drugs and alcohol
• Neighbourhoods will experience less environmental crime including graffiti, abandoned vehicles and flytipping
3b Short-term priorities
• Reduce crime through well targeted activity
• Ensure our streets and neighbourhoods feel safer by reducing alcohol related crime and rowdy/nuisance
behaviour
• Work with families and individuals causing concern in local neighbourhoods through tailored
programmes
• Promote community cohesion and tackle crimes which are motivated by hate
• Reduce violent crime, including domestic violence
• Improve communication with local people and communities to reduce the fear of crime and ensure local
people feel confident in reporting crime, build confidence in the criminal justice system and improve
support for the victims of crime
• Work in partnership to change the behaviour of the most persistent offenders and reduce re-offending
• Prevent the setting of deliberate fires and reduce the number of accidental deaths which can happen as
a result, especially across priority neighbourhoods
3c Some indicators we will use to help us measure success
Crime rates; perceptions of anti-social behaviour; satisfaction with the way anti-social behaviour is dealt
with; re-offending rates; arson incidents; repeat incidents of domestic violence; drug-related offending rate;
drug users in treatment; alcohol-harm related hospital admission rate; offenders under probation in
employment; young offenders engagement in education, employment or training; children/people killed or
seriously injured in road traffic accidents
3d Opportunities and challenges of growth
The growth of the city provides opportunities to "design out crime" in new developments and to provide
good quality open spaces for local communities to use. Growth will offer more employment and housing
opportunities, and opportunities to involve communities in improving the quality of the local environment.
Increased economic activity will mean that we will need to continue to support local businesses in
addressing the crimes that affect them. We will need to improve cross-boundary working if the city grows at
its outer edges.
3e Equality of opportunity; community cohesion and neighbourhoods
We need to reduce crime, anti-social behaviour, fear of crime and substance misuse in those areas and for
those communities who are most affected. We need to promote community cohesion through shared
values and respect across cultures and to increase awareness of ways to report crime and ways to access
substance misuse treatment services, especially among those new communities in Coventry. We should
also raise awareness within communities about acceptable behaviour, personal responsibility and cultural
differences.
3f Climate change
There are potential implications for community safety from changes in patterns of behaviour if the climate
changes. More acute weather conditions may cause fires and flooding. Extended seasons may mean
longer periods when people are outside in the evening and hotter weather leads more people to open
windows and doors, which can all impact on crime rates. Fear of crime is putting people off using public
transport. This increases the use of cars and lack of confidence in road safety reduces cycling and walking.
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