Community Safety Plan

The Kensington and Chelsea Community Safety Team, on behalf of the Safer Kensington and Chelsea Partnership, were keen to understand the most important crime and community safety issues affecting residents and businesses in Kensington and Chelsea. This consultation was an opportunity for residents, businesses and other stakeholders to tell the Safer Kensington and Chelsea Partnership how to focus resources from agencies across a range of statutory services – including the Police, the Council, The National Probation Service, and Health services – to make the borough a safer place to live, work and learn. A range of virtual engagement sessions took place to gather the views of residents and stakeholders throughout the community. An online survey was also promoted via conversations with residents, voluntary and community organisations and social media channels. The online survey ran between 11 February 2021 – 2 May 2021.

The feedback from the survey and the workshops told us that the most important community safety priorities for residents in the borough are:

1. Violence – this related to youth violence and violence against women and girls. The impact of both issues described were broad and a range of behaviours from knife crime, child exploitation and grooming, as well as the safety of women in public spaces and rise in domestic abuse were all shared by participants.
2. Antisocial behaviour –  range of issues from begging, noisy neighbours to drug related behaviours.
3. Drug related crime - The concern for drug related offending as a driver of crime was significant and it was felt to be an ignored issue by many, with reporting of these crimes making little impact.
4. Feelings of safety - nearly three quarters (72 per cent) strongly agreed/agreed that they felt safe in their neighbourhood during the day, whilst this was reduced to a third (32 per cent) when asked if they felt safe in their neighbourhood at night.
5. Tackling crime in Kensington and Chelsea: When attendees at the virtual engagement sessions were asked about what can be done to tackle crime issues in the borough, the most frequent responses were around: community engagement, communications, physical improvements, neighbourhood patrols and youth prevention services. These aligned with the findings from the survey, where 75 per cent selected High visibility patrols by police/wardens, 56 per cent selected Increasing CCTV and 49 per cent selected Enforcement against anti-social behaviour as the most effective ways of tackling crime.

Following on from what we heard from the consultation, the Council’s key recommendations to the Safer Kensington and Chelsea Partnership is that the Community Safety Plan will focus on the three priorities of Violence, ASB and Drug related crime. The responses outlined by residents and the continued engagement of residents in the delivery of the plan will also be a prominent feature. The Community Safety Plan will be written with a timetable to be agreed by Full Council by the end of the financial year. This Plan will outline what the Council will do to respond to these concerns and make the borough a safer place for all.