SD35 - Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council

higher scores for community neglect as a risk factor largelydue to a perception of ‘lots of fights’ and ‘lots of empty andabandoned buildings’; higher scores for low commitment toschool largely due to higher levels of exclusion, suspensionand expulsion and higher scores for early problembehaviour largely due to greater use of alcohol and arrestrates.• Blaenau Gwent children participate in physical exercise foran average of 16% (5x30 mins) per week which is below thenational average of 34% even though the landscape andtopography of Blaenau Gwent lends itself to a variety ofoutdoor play experiencesCommunity Safety: A postal survey was conducted by CrimeConcern Cymru in April 2004, focusing on residents’ perceptions offear of crime and actual experience of crime. Although a highproportion felt “very safe” or “safe” going out in BG during the day(87.3%), this fell to 43.6% at night. Respondents were less worriedabout crimes against the person (48.7% “very worried” or “worried”about robbery/mugging and 51.2% about physical assault) thanproperty related crime (78.2% “very worried” or “worried” aboutburglary, 80.1% about car crime and 81.7% about theft from a car).Responses from Cwm and Ebbw Vale consistently returned higherlevels of fear of crime, with general levels well in excess ofcorresponding statistics from the British Crime Survey.Recorded crime figures published in Safer Blaenau GwentPartnership Strategic Assessment 2008-2009 show that the wardsof Ebbw Vale North and Ebbw Vale South experience higher levelsof crime. In particular motor vehicle related crime and criminaldamage.Anti social behaviour is a primary concern to all communities inBlaenau Gwent. Reducing harm caused by alcohol is a national andlocal priority as there is a strong causal link to other priorities suchas violent crime and anti social behaviour.Youth related incidents reported to Gwent Police account for 50% ofall rowdy/nuisance behaviour calls, which in turn account for 73% ofincidents reported to Gwent Police in the period Oct 06-Sept 07.However no correlation has been found between trends in rowdybehaviour and criminal damage or any strong match with schoolexclusion data. However, it should be noted that school exclusiondata relates to the location of the school not the pupil’s homeaddress.Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that menand women living in Blaenau Gwent have the lowest chance ofsurvival to the age of 75 compared with other area in Wales. Thesurvival rate for men is 59.6% in Blaenau Gwent compared to70.6% in Ceredigion and for women 67.4% compared toMonmouthshire at 80.9%. Sadly the survival rate for women inBlaenau Gwent is the lowest in the whole of England and Wales.Lifelong Learning: Data relating to education, skills andqualifications in the area indicates a considerable disparity betweenBlaenau Gwent and South East Wales and Wales. In BlaenauGwent, the proportion of people holding NVQ level 2, or above in2003 was 41% compared to 43% for South East Wales and 60% forWales. The situation is far worse in terms of the proportion ofpeople holding the higher level 4 qualification or above: 10% forBlaenau Gwent compared to 17% and 23% for South East Walesand Wales respectively.12