Driving Down Crime and Disorder

Crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in South Tyneside have fallen year on year, councillors will be told this week.

Figures show that overall crime was down by 5 per cent, and ASB decreased by 11 per cent during April to August, compared to the same period in 2023.

There was a 41 per cent reduction in vehicle crime and a dedicated taskforce set up to tackle motorcycle disorder has resulted in nearly 100 bikes seized since the start of this year.

The council and its partners have also been cracking down on nuisance tenants this year, securing four closure orders to shut down problem homes and two civil injunctions banning anti-social neighbours from certain areas. In the last month teams seized a council property in South Shields after gaining a possession order.

The work of the environmental enforcement team, which tackles issues including fly tipping, littering and dog fouling, resulted in 25 fines being issued over a three-month period and three people taken to court, with one flytipper jailed for eight weeks.

The review of the work of the Community Safety Partnership will be presented to Our Place Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Jim Foreman, Lead Member for Housing and Community Safety, said: "We know that tackling crime and anti-social behaviour is top of our residents' priorities, so these figures are really encouraging.

"Teams are clearly working hard to crack down on issues like motorcycle disorder, nuisance tenants and youth disorder - which has seen a significant decrease on last year.

"These are problems that can really impact people's quality of life so I'm pleased that we have had some good results.

"Now we need to work on maintaining these positive trends and identifying further areas for improvement."

One local business which has praised the work of partners to help tackle anti-social behaviour around the nearby North Marine Park, beach, skate park and seafront toilets is Ocean Beach Pleasure Park.

Michael Sheeran, owner of Ocean Beach Pleasure Park, said: "While our site itself hasn't had any issues, we all want the area to be a safe and welcoming place. The disorderly behaviour of some groups of people was having a detrimental impact on the wider area, making people feel intimidated and leaving our beautiful seafront area damaged.

"As a business that welcomes thousands of families every year it's really important for us to make sure everyone has a great experience when they come here. Thanks to all the work that has been done, we're pleased to have seen an improvement, and hope it will continue to improve."

The Community Safety Partnership is made up of the Council, police, Probation Service and other organisations.

The Partnership's Plan for 2024 to 2027 identified five key priorities:

• reducing crime
• addressing domestic and sexual abuse
• putting victims first
• addressing anti-social behaviour
• delivering community confidence

Councillor Alison Strike, Chair of the Our Place Scrutiny Committee, said: "We know that anti-social behaviour is really important to communities right across the borough and that is why, as a scrutiny committee, we welcome updates like this so we can understand the work of the Partnership and what more we can do to tackle ASB head on." 

The Our Place Scrutiny Committee meeting takes place on Thursday 26 September, at 10am, in South Shields Town Hall.